A Geek World

The House Judiciary Commitee held a meeting on Dec. 15 and 16 to decide wether to vote on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

Fortunately, no decisions were taken.

Some reports indicated that the voting would be pushed to 2012.

However, Rep. Darrel Issa confirmed with a tweet that the rest of the meeting will be held on Dec. 21, right before lawmakers depart for the holiday break.

BREAKING: Judiciary has scheduled the rest of #SOPA markup next Wednesday, Dec. 21 at 9 AM EST. #stopsopa #open #dontbreaktheinternet #ip

— Darrell Issa (@DarrellIssa) December 16, 2011

Also, we shouldn't forget the other act, Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA). A meeting will be held next year on January to decide wether the Senate should vote on this bill.

The web and free speech are in great danger.

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) are two bills the USA Government is considering that could get your favorite sites blocked.

To prevent you to visit them, DNS blocking will be used, as in China.

YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter - all of these sites could be blocked.

Free speech will be a crime. You could get in jail for sharing a song on Facebook.

Also, websites will be shut down, and you won't be able to visit them, even if you're outside the US.

I think the infographic and video below will explain it better than I do.

Please, submit the form below:

Edit: ultrafez pointed out on Reddit that it's just Android 4.0 that syncs your bookmarks with Google Chrome and I guess he's right.

There have been rumors that a mobile version of the popular web browser Google Chrome could be released soon.

A new folder "Mobile Bookmarks" has been spotted in the latest Chromium version.

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Chromium is the open source project on which Google Chrome is based.

I use the trunk (most unstable) version of Chromium. Many people are having difficulties with installing it, so I made a guide.

This version is considered unstable, although I find it very stable.

You had better read the advantages and disadvantages of going through this guide.

Advantages:

• It is open source. Some people (like me) are passionate about FOSS projects, so that should suit them.
• It has the latest features (usually found in chrome://flags)

Disadvantages

• It might be unstable.
• There are some differences between Chromium and Google Chrome, found here.

Now that you've read the above text, we can continue to the guide.

Linux:

You can use my script, which will work.

Else:

1. Go to http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-snapshots/Linux/LAST_CHANGE
2. Copy the number in that file
3. Go to http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-snapshots/Linux/number_in_file/chrome-linux.zip
4. Unzip the file
5. Create a shortcut pointing to chrome-linux/chromium (the icon is product_logo_48.png in the same folder)

Mac

You can use this script, although I haven't tested it (it works only as an updater, so you still have to read the following instructions).

Else:

1. Go to http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-snapshots/Mac/LAST_CHANGE
2. Copy the number in that file
3. Go to http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-snapshots/Mac/number_in_file/chrome-mac.zip
4. Unzip the file
5. Create a shortcut wherever you want that point to chrome-mac/Chromium.app/Contents/MacOS/Chromium (the icon is in chrome-mac/Chromium.app/Contents/Resources/app.icns)

Windows

You can use this program, tested and working (it works both as an downloader and updater).

Else:

1. Go to http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-snapshots/Win/LAST_CHANGE
2. Copy the number in that file
3. Mini-installer

   You can install Chromium as a Windows program.

   1. Go to http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-snapshots/Win/number_in_file/mini_installer.exe
   2. Run the executable file

   Or
   
   1. Go to http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-snapshots/Win/number_in_file/chrome-win32.zip
   2. Unzip the file
   3. Create a shortcut pointing to chrome-win32/chrome.exe

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Well, I installed Ubuntu 11.10.

After doing that, I tried to install Google Chrome.

That was extremely difficult:

I downloaded the .deb file from Google.

When I opened it, I got an Internal Error. Reboot did nothing.

I tried to do it with dpkg, but I got an error that some packages are missing (why couldn't it install them, when I had super user privileges?).

I installed them and then it automatically installed Chrome.

Although it sounds easy, it wasn't. I spent a lot of time Googling.

Also, it is slow.

On the other side, what I really liked was Online accounts.

You click on your username, then on "Online accounts..." and then on the + sign.

Choose a service (just Google for now).

Log in and authorize it.

After that, you can choose what to use it for.

My first impressions of Ubuntu 11.10 were mixed. Hope it gets better over time.

Easily change your login background with ‘Simple LightDM Manager’.

The default login background image matches the default Ubuntu wallpaper. Chances are you’ve changed the latter, so why not the former?

This is easy to do by installing ‘Simple LightDM Manager’ – a small app that lets you choose and set a different image as the login window background.

The app is pretty straightforward to use. Click the button next to ‘Location’ for a file prompt.

The app lets you specify and image file or colour for the background, as well as tweaking the logo that is displayed to the bottom of the login screen. If like me you’re only interested in changing the background you can ignore the bottom option entirely.

To create the illusion of a seamless login set the Login background to the same image as your desktop wallpaper.

Download Simple LightDM Manager

LightDM can be downloaded in .Deb format by hitting the button below. Once the package has downloaded just double click on it to begin installation.

Once installed, Simple LightDM Manager can be launched from the Dash by typing ‘simple’ into the search bar.

Source: omgubuntu.co.uk

Update: Be careful, it is buggy!

Well, you updated to Ubuntu 11.10, and you see... Unity!

Unfortunately, Ubuntu 11.10 doesn't ship with old Classic Desktop.

If you want to go back to good, old Classic Desktop, here's how:

1. Open a Terminal
2. Run `sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback`
3. Logout
4. Select "Classic Desktop" from the drop-down menu on the bottom of your screen
5. Log in