Alternative Ways to login to gmail

Besides the normal way of logging in to gmail, there are alternative ways to sign in.

The ones i know of are html view and mobile view. Why this is necessary is during peak hours in college or when u are at home and just want to check ur email quickly, this is extremely useful.

To access the html version of gmail, use this link.

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html

To access the mobile version of gmail, use this link.

http://m.gmail.com

They are extremely fast way to access gmail, but feature wize, its no match to gmail's ajax interface.

Do check them out.

Minimal Installation of Ubuntu

I like ubuntu because the best part of it is the availability of applications on the main, universe and multiverse repos and the ease at which you can install them. Also applications just work!! in Ubuntu.

But since i own a P3 700mHz PC, a whole gnome desktop or kde desktop would cripple the system unable to run eclipse(my fav ide) and other dev stuffs.

For this i use Openbox+fbpanel, which makes a great combination.
I also install Ubuntu the commandline way, which gives me very much flexibility withouth the whole ubuntu default packages.

Here is how i do it usually

a) put the DVD version of the kubuntu and boot from it.
b) select install a command line system
c) go on with the installer until we have a good commandline system working.
d) now its time to pull up custom picked packages from the dvd. The following packages should be enough to have xserver working
1) sudo apt-cdrom add
This will add ur dvd to apt
2) sudo aptitude install kdm
3) sudo aptitude install ttf-indic language-pack-ne firefox xorg upsplash kwin konqueror kdecore kubuntu-default-settings kubuntu-artwork-usplash amarok pidgin kaffeine libxine1-ffmpeg sun-java krusader msttcorefonts gnome-icon-theme k3b kpdf gwenview openbox openbox-themes fbpanel kde-systemsettings kmix kate

Will take some time to install, i wonder if ur video card driver is installed, should be install, paitience

kdm should load fine and u can select openbox as ur default session.

initally u will only see a blank screen possibly with kubuntu wallpaper, right click and u will see openbox menu. No to integrate fbpanel into it, we will write 2 linex in openbox config

4) Right click and exit, load a session in kde and check ur home
bibek@monster:~$ cd ~/.config/openbox/

5) if there is a file called autostart.sh modify it else create it
bibek@monster:~$ kate ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh
inside autostart.sh, i have these 2 lines

(sleep 2 && fbpanel) &
(sleep 2 && kmix) &

Save and exit
this will run fbpanel and kmix after ur openbox, logout of ur kde session and log in in openbox session, there should be fbpanel and kmix both.

To make ur work even easier, u can define openbox short cuts as i've defined them,
Inside /home/username/.config/openbox u should see a rc.xml file which has configurations for openbox. Open the file for editing and search for
Now before paste the following code. Read the code the understand what they will do, makes my day to day life much easier.

<!-- custom shortcuts -->
<keybind key="W-F12">
<action name="Execute">
<execute>firefox</execute>
</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-F11">
<action name="Execute">
<execute>xterm</execute>
</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-F10">
<action name="Execute">
<execute>pidgin</execute>
</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-F9">
<action name="Execute">
<execute>/home/bibek/bin/eclipse/eclipse</execute>
</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-F8">
<action name="Execute">
<execute>krusader</execute>
</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-F7">
<action name="Execute">
<execute>amarok</execute>
</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-F6">
<action name="Execute">
<execute>kaffeine</execute>
</action>
</keybind>
<!-- end of custom shortcuts -->
Cheers

HOWTO Install Counter Strike Source in Linux

This post is to help you install counter strike (cracked one which we get in copied cds) in linux. It will also serve as a reference for me for later installations.

I have installed ubuntu gusty gibbon and the wine package that comes with it. do not install the new package from wine's dev repo coz that wasted my 2hrs of debugging time.

Steps
a) install wine in linux
bibek@monster:~$ sudo aptitude install wine

b) create urself a wine folder
bibek@monster:~$ winecfg

this will openup a configuration window. Close it up and everything should be alright

c) Install cs bu runnig the installer
bibek@monster:~$ cd cs
bibek@monster:~/cs$ wine setup.exe

After the installation is finished, we need to install gecko, which is required by cs to run

d) Run this in command line and it will download the gecko for wine,
bibek@monster:~/cs$ wine iexplore http://www.google.com

When u do this for the first time, it will download the gecko engine, after installations u should see google.com, next time u do this, i till directly load www.google.com
Gecko is used to load HTML components through wine, google on it 4 more info

e) We also need the mfc42.dll file from windows installation,
bibek@monster:~/cs$ cp /media/sda1/windows/system32/mfc42.dll /home/bibek/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/

f) Finally we need the tahoma font, copy tahoma.ttf from windowsdrive\windows\fonts\tahoma.ttf to /home/usernamehere/.wine/drive_c/windows/fonts/tahoma.ttf
bibek@monster:~/cs$ cp /media/sda1/windows/Fonts/tahoma.ttf /home/bibek/.wine/drive_c/windows/fonts/

g) reboot wine
bibek@monster:~/cs$ wineboot

h) now we're ready to run cs
bibek@monster:~/cs$ cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Valve/Counter\ Strike\ Source\ Final/
bibek@monster:~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Valve/Counter Strike Source Final$ wine hl2.exe -steam -console -game cstrike

And ur game should run without any problems.

NOTE
Running hl2.exe directly through wine will give error so make sure to pass the additional arguements as mentioned above in step g)
Following error is given
Unable to get IFileSystem interface from filesystem factory
Bugs please put in comments.