Artha- The Best offline Dictionary for Ubuntu

I had done a lot of googling in the past to find out a dictionary that I could use in Ubuntu when I'm not connected to the internet. It yielded nothing, atleast not anything that is ready-packaged for Ubuntu.. Few days ago I was just going through the 'Ubuntu Software center' to find out any random software that may interest me. Well, I found something that interested me; 'Artha'.

Artha is a pretty decent dictionary which works with Wordnet 3.0 as its backend which is very comprehensive(atleast for common use, if not more). It has many features like 'relatives' of the word, which includes "Synonyms, Antonyms, Derivatives, Similar, Domains, Causes, Kinds(Hyponyms)". In my experience I found it very good and indeed comprehensive.

The best feature that I liked in it is its HotKey which is Ctrl+Alt+w. This is a very handy feature, you can just select a word in any software and press the Hotkey combination to invoke Artha, its notification/window will then come up with the meaning, as per your settings selection.(I like the Notifiaction feature)

The version of Artha found in Ubuntu 9.10(Karmic) repository is 0.8.0. But, Artha is available in version 1.0.1 for Ubuntu and many other Linux distributions. It has regular expression based search.You can find the download details for the new version for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, at the following link:
Download Artha 1.0.1

I'm using BloGTK Editor 2.0 for blogging

As the GNOME-blog applet was faulty in showing the blog post titles, I searched for an alternative tool.. And this search ended up in the BloGTK 2.0 editor.. The official Ubuntu repositories, still have the BloGTK version 1.2, which I couldn't setup for my blogger.com account, i thensearched for its newer version. The 2.0 version can autodetect the settings for your blog once you enter the URL of your blog, and the service(blogger, livejournal,etc..) used. Hence, the account setup was a cakewalk...
Added to that BloGTK has the feature to show your old blog posts, edit it, re post it,etc... All this from your desktop itself... Isn't it cool?

You can get the BloGTK 2.0 in your Ubuntu OS, by adding its PPA from-
BloGTK PPA in Launchpad

Please make sure that you're choosing the correct version of your Ubuntu........

I'm now using the gnome-blog applet to post in this blog

I just found out the Gnome applet called "gnome-blog 0.9.1". Its the GNOME web-blogging applet.. It has a very simple interface... The drawback is that the only other options we get are "Bold", "Italic" text stylizing and adding links.... Anyways I feel that posting to your blog directly from the desktop is quite an useful feature, as we can avoid a hell lot many mouse-clicks, and page visits....

It can intearct with the popular blogging sites such as blogger.com, livejournal.com,etc...

Adding the title feature does not seem to work.. The title is found along with the blog content.... We just have to put up the title manually... Still you may find this tool useful...

My Ubuntu 9.10 Beta Experience

I have now upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10 Beta. Initially it didn't work out for me, a sI was getting only a white-screen when logged in. I thought Ubuntu was wrong in the release of such not ready beta. But on chat in IRC I found that I was wrong, and could correct it. The problem arose because I had replaced the original GCC with my own compiled version. It conflicted with the upgradation process. And there was nothing wrong in the upgradation, or the Beta, as such.
  So, on usingb the Beta, now I find the following changes-

• First and foremost, now the Mute button of my Laptop actually mutes the sound(for the first time). The sound preferences menu seems to have developed so much. It now has more useful options, which are easy to find and use.
  
• The Default Ubuntu wallpaper and theme is cool, far far better than its counterparts in the older versions. Apart from this now Ubuntu provides a host of other cool wallpapers, which are very awesome, much like the cool wallpapers, that you find in either Vista or maybe Win7(ya I'm talking about Windows...)
• All the communication software now comes under a link in near the date and time notifier in the panel. Its now really easy to access Empathy, Evolution,(and if you have installed it-)Pidgin, Gwibber Microblogging client.
• If you have installed Gnome-Do, you would find that it looks more cooler now.
• Firefox is the latest version-3.5.3, with Ubuntu Canonical branding. So, it supports HTML5.
• The different folders like- "Music","Home", "Pictures",etc, in each users account has now an informative icon, denoting its content.
  
• Empathy replaces Pidgin as the default chat application, said to be for the long term good. Hopefully so..
• The Login screen is now more integrated, and designed more logically.
• The Compiz-fusion effects run much better in my Intel Graphics card now, as the kernel version 2.6.31-14, has new MESA driver, which supports Intel GPU better.
  

Gnome 2.28 released

The newest stable version of the favorite linux desktop environment, GNOME 2.28 has been released.
 Various new user-facing features have been rolled into the codebase, but also of interest is the stuff that's removed. As part of the progress towards Gnome 3.0, the developers have ripped out crusty old code - there are no longer any applications that depend on esound, libgnomevfs, libgnomeprint, or libgnomeprintui. You can see the full release notes here, or read on for a quick summary of the changes.

• Epiphany browser has switched from Gecko to WebKit for better performance
• New utility for managing Bluetooth devices
• Empathy IM client has reorganised GUI
• Media Player can navigate DVD menus and resume playback from last position
• Cheese webcam app has "burst" mode for taking multiple pics in a row
• Volume control supports channel fading
• Menus do not show icons by default
• Power Manager now supports laptops with multiple batteries

Source of review:http://www.tuxradar.com/content/gnome-228-released


New Features-

GNOME Bluetooth

GNOME 2.28 includes the first release of the GNOME Bluetooth module to help users manage their Bluetooth devices. GNOME Bluetooth supports hundreds of Bluetooth devices, including mice, keyboards and headsets. GNOME Bluetooth includes PulseAudio integration for Bluetooth headsets and headphones.

     GNOME Bluetooth also includes support for Internet access through your mobile phone. After pairing your mobile phone with GNOME Bluetooth, NetworkManager will include an entry to use your mobile phone for Internet access.

Empathy Instant Messenger

• GNOME's instant messaging and communication application, Empathy, built on the Telepathy communications framework, has gained a number of new and important features to help users communicate.

• Users are now able to share their desktop with Empathy contacts using the GNOME Remote Desktop Viewer, Vino.

• Geolocation support using Geoclue has been added for XMPP contacts, such as Jabber and Google Talk. You can view a contact's location by hovering your mouse over their contact name in the contact list, in the information dialogue or in the Map View.

• Audio and video chats can now be made fullscreen, and if a contact does not have video, their avatar will be displayed.

Epiphany Web-browser

• It switches to WebKit from Gecko for its rendering engine. With the exception of some performance enhancements, this change should be invisible.

• Switching to WebKit also fixes a number of long-standing bugs in Epiphany due to the old Gecko-based backend.

Brasero

• Brasero, the GNOME CD/DVD Burner, now supports the ability to burn data across multiple discs and has added a graphical display to show space used on discs before burning.
  

Courtesy-http://library.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/2.28/

About Ubuntu 9.10

The GNOME desktop environment has been updated to version 2.28 RC1 (2.27.92), the Linux kernel packages are now at version 2.6.31-10.34 and they are based on the final version of Linux kernel 2.6.31.
  The KDE variant of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, has also had its KDE desktop updated to version 4.3.1 and has a number of updated applications and libraries incorporated.
   This version incorporates an X-based splash screen as part of the faster booting enhancements and sees the first release of the Ubuntu Software Store application. The Ubuntu One file synchronisation service is also built in to this release.

Courtesy-
http://www.h-online.com/open/Ubuntu-9-10-Alpha-6-arrives--/news/114267
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1534043/ubuntu-releases-alpha

Ubuntu 10.04 announced.

Ubuntu 10.04 will be called Lucid Lynx and it's scheduled for April 2010 and it will be a LTS version of the operating system, i.e,you will have 2 years full of updates, without the need of installing all over again.
The first Alpha version will be available later this year.
Ubuntu 9.10, is slated for relese at October 29 2009. Its currently in Alpha 6, which is expected to be the last Alpha for this Ubuntu version.

Courtesy-http://www.clububuntu.com/2009/09/ubuntu-1004-announced.html