Process Tree in Ubuntu

Want to know what processes are running in Ubuntu? Just open a terminal & type the following.

pstree

If you want the output from the command to be written to a text file on your desktop just do the following.

cd ~/Desktop
pstree > output.txt

Command-Prompt Text-Editor

Ever wanted to use the Windows Command Prompt as a text editor?

Take a look at this blog post.

Online Text Editor

Useful free online tool, available here.

jME - java Monkey Engine

Lots of jME demos can be viewed & downloaded from here.

JOGL Test

Want to see some OpenGL graphics in your web browser? Go here & view a JOGL demo.

Off Topic Post

'Cracking Up' by 'The Jesus & Mary Chain' from the 1998 album 'Munki'.

Remove text with uniq

Uniq is a great little command-line tool which when combined with grep; makes text operations really simple.

Sharebee File Upload

Sharebee is a wonderful file upload site. It takes the file that you upload & copies it to several different upload sites.

RGB 2 Hex Converter

Very useful online RGB to Hex converter available here.

OpenGL Card Tester

Here is a program I wrote in Basic4GL that will create a text-file containing a lot of information about your graphics card.

These are the results from my old XP laptop & here are the results from my new Vista laptop.

Useful OpenGL Book

An OpenGL book containing a lot of useful programs can be downloaded for free from here.

DrJava IDE

Just got DrJava to compile a JOGL application in Ubuntu. So I've put a tutorial on this page of my Wikispace.

NetBeans on Ubuntu

Installing NetBeans on Ubuntu is pretty simple, just type the following in a terminal

sudo apt-get install netbeans

Off Topic Post

Hypnosis video that I found on YouTube, here. The first Five minutes are very relaxing.

Gedit on Windows

Useful guide to installing Gedit on Windows can be found here.

Euphoria language

You can download the Euphoria language for Windows & Linux from here.

There is a thread about Euphoria on this page of the thinBasic forum.

newLISP blog

Nice blog dedicated to newLISP can be found here.

How do I use grep?

If you don't already know, check this site out.

jME - Java Monkey Engine

Some nice videos of the jME can be seen here. You'll need to install Quicktime to watch them though, so I recommend you get the alternative version from here.

If you want to view the original Java demos you'll need to get the jre from here.

Online Image Editor

Another useful online tool can be found here. It's an image editor which can be used for resizing images.

TrID

TrID is a useful command-line tool that can analyze files & tell you about their format.

You can get it from here.

GNUWin32 Tools

Have you ever wanted to use Linux Command-Line tools like wget, gzip, grep & cat in Windows?

Check out this site. Just take the .dlls & .exes, place them in your System32 folder & you'll be able to use them from the Command-Prompt.

A package listing can be found here.

sdlBasic Help Documentation

If you want to make your own help documentation guide for sdlBasic, check this site out.

Miro Media Player

Miro is an Open Source media player which can be used for downloading videos off the Internet.

It's compatible with Linux, Windows & Mac.

GL_AUX_BUFFERS in Basic4GL

The following short routine will calculate the amount of auxiliary screen buffers your graphic card has got.

' Auxiliary buffer test

dim auxBufferCount

glGetIntegerv(GL_AUX_BUFFERS, auxBufferCount)

cls : print "Number of Buffers:" + auxBufferCount

Basic4GL Float Conversions

Interesting set of links I compiled on the Basic4GL Forum which discuss the problems people were having with the automatic conversion of numbers from float to integer & vice-versa.

I've placed the links in chronological order...

• The First link is here from 2004.
• The Second is here & is from 2005.
• The Third is from 2006 & is here.
• Finally the Fourth is here & was made in 2008.

The First link isn't really about automatic conversions but it does deal with the limitations of floating point mathematics.

Off Topic Post

Jerry Springer Uncut Fights, lol.

Jerry Springer Uncut/Fights

Google SketchUp

Interested in designing 3D objects & buildings; download Google SketchUp.

Caligari FreeSpace 7.6

You can now get Caligari FreeSpace 7.6 for free from here.

Read more about the program in this blog post.

FileFront Online Storage

For anyone who is after some free storage space for files, images & a lot more. You should create an account at FileFront.

Off Topic Post

Just got my hands on a DVD-Rip of 'The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'. So I thought I'd upload an image of Caroline Munro.

Brutus2D on Ubuntu

I started this thread on the Brutus2D forum to discuss how to get Brutus2D to work on Ubuntu.

Windows PowerShell CTP2

A new version of Windows powerShell is available to download from here.

Playlist creator

So you've downloaded some videos off Youtube & you want to make a playlist which you can watch in your favourite media player? The easiest way to do it is to download this Playlist Creator.

Linus Torvalds doesn't like C++

Back in 2007 he said the following in a newsgroup.

To be honest, his rant seems to be aimed more at C++ fanboy programmers who write poor C++ code rather than at the language itself.

Prince of Persia SNES

Prince of Persia was one of my favourite games on the SNES, mostly due to the excellent music in the first level.

Where Time Stood Still

I remember playing this game a lot on my Spectrum. It was based on the book 'The Lost World' by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Digital Mars in Ubuntu Hardy

The D or 'Digital Mars' programming language has been around for some years now but a few months ago it became much easier to install the language & the main additional libraries in Ubuntu.

First of all open a terminal & type the following...

sudo wget http://downloads.dsource.org/projects/tango/ubuntu/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dpackages.list

then type in this...

wget -q http://downloads.dsource.org/projects/tango/ubuntu/public.key -O- | sudo apt-key add -

then this...

sudo apt-get update

& finally this.

sudo apt-get install gdc dsss tango-gdc tangobos-gdc dmd tango-dmd tangobos-dmd

For more information check out this site.

If you want to test your installation, just compile & run this 'Hello, World!' program which can be found at the bottom of this page.

Google App Engine

Is a platform for building & hosting Web applications which run on Google Servers. I've just downloaded the App Engine SDK from here. You'll find more about the 'Google App Engine' in this Wikipedia article & there is a simple installation guide & 'Hello, World!' program here.

This is a video which shows you what the 'App Engine' is all about.

AlZip Compression

AlZip is a new compression program which you can download for free from here.

Cleaning-up Ubuntu

One of the problems that some people have with Ubuntu is that when they uninstall a program it still remains on the hard drive. So I'm going to show you how to remove these programs completely.

First of all check out this post on the Linux Questions forum, then check out this post on the Linux Screw blog.

Becoming Root in Ubuntu

If you need to become 'root' in Ubuntu, just type the following in a Terminal.

sudo su

Then just enter your password.

More information can be found on this page.

Off Topic Post

Here is a Playlist of the 'Only Fools & Horses' episode; 'Chain Gang'.

Creating Firefox Add-ons

Have you ever wanted to create an add-on for Firefox but you haven't known how to start?

Then you should check out this webpage, it contains a lot of useful advice to show you how to start developing your own add-ons.

Here is another link which contains some more development information.

Wikipedia Interesting Articles

Everyday I visit the programming section of the Ubuntu Forum. During the Two Years that I've been visiting the site I've discovered a lot of useful information. Here are a few interesting pages on Wikipedia that have been linked to on the site.

• Cargo cult programming
• Greenspun's Tenth Rule
• The Magical Number Seven
• Computational complexity theory
  

Microsoft Express Video Wiki

I've created a Wikispace where you'll be able to watch all the Microsoft Express Editions 2005 Videos. At the moment I've only embedded the Visual Basic ones but I'll soon embed all the others. You can find the wikispace here.

OpenGL 2D Library for FreeBASIC

Nice 2D library for FreeBASIC can be found here. More information can be found in issue 26 of the QBASIC magazine.

Babel Fish Translation

Babel Fish is a useful site for translating text from foreign languages into English or vice-versa.

Word Processing in C#

Scott Lysle wrote two excellent programs in C# & Visual Basic which show you how to write a Rich Text Editor. You can find the C# version here & the Visual Basic version can be found here.

C# OpenGL & SDL Graphics

I found this website a long time ago. It contains two extremely useful examples of Windows Forms programming in C#. The first shows you how to embed OpenGL graphics in a Windows form & the second shows you how to embed SDL graphics in a Windows Form.

Off Topic Post

Just downloaded a VHS-Rip of 'Warlords of Atlantis'.


It was one of those movies which used to be shown during the Summer holidays when I was growing up. Along with 'Journey to the Center of the Earth', 'At the Earth's Core', 'The Land that Time Forgot', 'The People that Time Forgot' & many others including the 'Sinbad' films, & 'Jason & the Argonauts' it brings back a lot of good memories.

Vim Download

Vim is an advanced version of Vi. It can downloaded for Windows from here & you can run it from the Command line just like nano.

7Zip Compression

The Command line version of 7Zip can be downloaded from here.

GNU Emacs

The Windows version of GNU Emacs can be downloaded from here.

GNU nano

Yesterday I discovered that my favourite Linux text-editor is available for Windows. The best thing is that it doesn't use a GUI. You can just place the nano.exe & the Cygwin.dll in your System32 folder. Then open a command-prompt & type in nano.

The Windows version can be downloaded from here. You'll find the commands & instructions for nano here on the Ubuntu wiki. (Don't worry, Windows uses the same commands)

Online File Decompression

Today I ran into a small problem when I needed to decompress a file which had been compressed in the Rar format. I run a pretty minimalist system so I've only got built-in Zip support & I really didn't want to install any extra software.

After a quick search on Google however, I found this site where you can upload compressed files & they'll be decompressed.

Computer Chronicles Videos

Here is an episode of the 'Computer Chronicles' from back in January 1985 about computer games.

If you do a search on Revver you'll find many more & there are a lot more on the Internet Archive.

LEGO Indiana Jones

You can download a demo of 'LEGO Indiana Jones' from here.

Basic4GL Town

Please click the image below in order to visit Basic4GL Town & increase our population.

Which Ubuntu version?

Want to know which Ubuntu version you're using?

Most people think that if they enter the following they'll find out the answer.

uname -a

But all that does is return the following information...

Linux matthew-laptop 2.6.24-19-generic #1 SMP Wed Jun 18 14:43:41 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

If you want to know which Ubuntu version you're using you should enter this...

lsb_release -i -d -r -c

Which will display the following on the screen.

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 8.04.1
Release: 8.04
Codename: hardy

If you want to know what the different parameters are just enter...

lsb_release -h

New Opera for Ubuntu

Today when I started-up Opera in Ubuntu I was notified of a new update which I duly downloaded. I uninstalled the old version using the Synaptics Package Manager. But I probably could have removed it with the following command

sudo apt-get remove --purge opera

Anyway in order to install the new version that I'd downloaded to my Desktop, I did the following.

cd ~/Desktop
sudo dpkg -i opera_9.51.2061.gcc4.qt3_i386.deb

Playing YouTube Videos in WMP

Do you want to play YouTube videos in Windows Media Player?

If you do then watch this video & visit this site.

Secure Password Generator

Very useful utility which can be found here. You can either generate a password online or download a program which you can use on your computer.

GTA III Video

I found this video on YouTube a long time back, it was uploaded by someone called CoMPuTerMAsSteR.



The video shows you some stunts which can be achieved in GTA III (San Andreas) & features a nice selection in music. Sadly CoMPuTerMAsSteR doesn't appear to have uploaded any other videos

TinyURL

TinyURL is a site on the Internet where you can enter a large URL & it will be converted into a much smaller one.

I first found out about the site some time ago but I've only just realised how powerful it is.

On several forums I have images which link to other sites in my signature, the only problem is the text for the URLs is incredible long & on the forums I use there is a 400 character limit.

By using TinyURL however I've been able to decrease the amount of characters they take up.

thinBasic Journal

Issue One of the thinBasic Journal can be downloaded from this thread on the thinBasic Forum. It contains a lot of useful programming tips.

Wikispaces Live Changes Badge

For some reason the Wikispaces Live Changes Badge displays correctly on my Website but not on this Blog or Wikispaces itself. I think I might have to learn some JavaScript to figure this out.

Help with MySQL

Installing MySQL for the first time can be a little intimidating so I've created 3 pages of useful information on my Wikispace. They should provide you with enough information to install PHP, Apache & MySQL in either Linux or Windows.

The pages are here, here & here.

The GIMP

The GIMP is a graphics program which can be downloaded from here. I find it very useful & if you install Python & PyGTK you can use plugins that other people have created.

My Bookmark Pages

Here is a link to my page on Clipmarks & here is a link to my bookmarks on del.icio.us.

Clipmarks Add-on

I found out about the Clipmarks add-on on the 'Getting Started with Firefox' page. Apparently it's an add-on which lets you bookmark part of a webpage instead of the whole page. I haven't tried it yet but it looks useful.

thinBasic v1.6.0.10

A new version of the scripting language thinBasic, has been released. It can be downloaded from this site & the forum can be found here.

Universal Extractor 1.6 Beta

Universal Extractor is a brilliant utility that I've been using for some time. It enables you to extract files from pretty much any archive, whether it's ACE, RAR, ZIP even Installers can be opened. The version which is available on FileHippo & the LegRoom website is the older version which is incompatible with Vista. But you can download the Beta version from here which works fine with Vista.

FreeBASIC

I've been using FreeBASIC for some years now; it's a compiled version of BASIC which has support for a lot of libraries such as OpenGL, GLUT etc.

In order to use it efficiently you'll also need to download a Code Editor (IDE) to type your code into. I use FBIde but there are others like FbEdit & JellyFB Editor.

newLISP

newLISP is a version of the LISP programming language. It can be downloaded from here & there is a discussion forum which can be visited here.

Writing OpenGL programs & creating executables is really simple in newLISP. It's even easier if you download some of the documentation especially the newLISP manual.

Tomb Raider III Video

Nice little Tomb Raider III video can be seen here. It shows you how to complete the 'Thames Wharf' level in under 5 minutes.

Scribd

Scribd is a site where you can download & upload different documents like PDFs, DOCs etc.

This is my Scribd page, I recommend that you check out the site as there are a huge number of programming books which can be downloaded from there.

7-Zip compression

Need help compressing & decompressing certain files in Vista?

Just download 7-Zip from here.

DrPython IDE

DrPython is a code editor for Python, it works in both Linux & Windows & I highly recommend that you take a look at it here.

In order to use it you must first install wxPython. Windows users can get it from here, while Linux users can use their package manager to install it.

O'Caml Executable

I created my first Executable in O'Caml yesterday. The program was a simple OpenGL routine that displayed a triangle on the screen & I used the following commands to create it.

ocamlopt -I +lablgl lablgl.cmxa lablglut.cmxa simple.ml

Just enter the above code in a Windows Command Prompt, making sure that you are in the folder where your source file is.

During compilation a few warnings were displayed & I had no control over the name of the .exe but I think I know how to solve those problems.

Zip folder association

Ever had that problem in Vista when you remove some compression software & the built-in zip software won't work?

Copy & paste the text at this link into Notepad & then save it as zipfolder_fix.reg

Double click it & it will be added to your registry & fix the file association problem.

O'Caml

O'Caml is a language I first heard about some time ago. I've recently installed the Windows version & messed about with OpenGL. I'll make another post in the future containing more information & I'll probably put a tutorial on my Wikispace.

You can find out more about O'Caml here on this Wikipedia page. Also here is a link to the O'Caml site & here is one to the OpenGL implementation to O'Caml.

Ubuntu Game Design Links

Here are some useful links if you're interested in game design & you're using Ubuntu.

• Ubuntu GameDev Wiki
• SDL-Basic
• Nitro Furano SDL-Basic site
  

Fixing Google Toolbar in Ubuntu

When I first installed Google Toolbar for Firefox 3.0 in Ubuntu I found that everything worked apart from the bookmarks function. You can read more about the problems I was having in this blog post.

Recently I tried using ColorZilla but I found that the eyedropper function wouldn't work. After some searching I found this post on the ColorZilla blog.

So I tried the solution out by typing the following into a terminal.

sudo apt-get install libxul-dev libstdc++5 gcc-4.1 libstdc++6

After reinstalling ColorZilla the eyedropper function worked but it also fixed the problem that I was having with the Google Toolbar, so I was able to remove the 'Deng Google Bookmarks' add-on that I had previously installed & fully use the Google Toolbar.

I was so happy that the toolbar problem had been fixed that I posted the solution in this thread on launchpad.

There is also a thread on the Ubuntu forum about this issue which can be found here.

LHA Compression in Ubuntu

Just type in at a Terminal.

sudo aptitude install lha

I found it on this thread at the Ubuntu forum.