Flash Player & Knoppix

I mentioned Knoppix in my previous posts, especially in Linux & Windows – myths and facts.

In short, Knoppix is a live Linux distribution. The system is booted from live CD, meaning you don’t have to install shit on your hard drive; you just put a CD/DVD into your optical drive or plug a flash drive in your USB port, which is quite handy when your main operating system goes high-wire.
There are many live Linux distributions now. Knoppix was the first and is the most used live distribution today. Probably because it’s still the best although the “really old version(s)” of Knoppix were far better than later versions, but that’s a story for another time.

Anyway, Knoppix comes with a lot of goodies, but one goody it lacks is Flash player, meaning you pretty much can’t use the Internet since half of the web uses Flash.
Since I was quite dependable on Knoppix during my stay in Slovenia (I hope I will blog about the stay soon), I eventually found a way to fix the shit.

If you Google about the issue, you’ll find out how incredibly simple it is to install Flash on Knoppix and indeed it is if you’re an experienced Linux user, but installing shit on Knoppix – Linux in general – often ain’t simple to us mere mortals at all if the program we wanna install ain’t in a software centre. Suffice it to say, a (working) Flash ain’t in the Software Center… well, not entirely (read the post more and you’ll see what I mean).

So, here is a step-by-step description of how I installed Flash (on the default Knoppix LXDE environment):

Step 1:
Open Software Center (click on LXDE logo on the taskbar and then go to Preferences).

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Step 2:
Search for “flash”. Once Software Center lists available software, find Lightspark and click on More Info.

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Step 3:
Now click on Use This Source.

Step 4:
After the Software Center gathers information, click Install.

Step 5:
Oh my, oh my; browsers still say Flash plugin is missing! What the fuck?!
Open Synaptic Package Manager (LXDE logo on taskbar > Preferences).

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Step 6:
Click on Search.

Step 7:
Find (as superuser) window is going to pop up. Type “flash” in Search textbox. Leave Look in be (should say Description and Name) and click on Search.

Step 8:
Once Synaptic Package Manager gives you search results, look for flashplugin-nonfree. Scroll down until you find it (I suggest maximizing Synaptic Package Manager window for easier searching). As you can see, it says Adobe Flash Player – browser plugin under description. That is the one we’re looking for. Don’t be bothered by “nonfree” crap. It only means you have to “agree” to the licence agreement. Actually, Flash player probably ain’t included in Knoppix because of the licence agreement. Linux is all about open-source software, meaning not just free programs, but non-licence binding crap and Knoppix, being Linux, supports that 100% 😀
Flashplugin-nonfree won’t be listed before installing Lightspark, so you do have to install Lightspark first.
Mark flashplugin-nonfree for installation (just click on the check-mark box next to flashplugin-nonfree and then click on Mark for Installation). Then click Apply (once thingies are marked for installation the icon should change the colour to green and the text Apply all marked changes should appear when you go over it with your mouse).

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Step 9:
Summary (as superuser) window should pop up next. Just click Apply.

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Step 10:
Time to check if the installation was successful!
Click on LXDE logo in the taskbar and then highlight Preferences. Adobe Flash Player should be listed on top.

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Step 11:
You’re finally done! (Re)start your browser and go to a site that needs Flash (e.g. streetview of Google Maps)

Enjoy!

Note that I’m writing about current latest version (2014/5/20) of Knoppix, 7.2.0. I hope the thing is going to be fixed (though I doubt it because of the licence agreement) in future releases. And for all I remember, Flash might work well on older versions. After all, Knoppix did use to be far better than it is now.

Waterfox

Do you use Firefox for Windows? Do you have 64bit system and are tired of having a 32bit browser, but like Firefox so much that you just don’t want to change your default browser?
Are you looking for a good Gecko engine (Firefox based) 64bit browser (if you use Linux or Mac, you’re good with Firefox ’cause Mozilla makes 64bit Firefox for Linux and Mac)? Look no more, Waterfox is here 😀

What’s the difference between Firefox and Waterfox (read About on Waterfox homepage)? Simple: Waterfox is 64bit version of Firefox (a recompiled Firefox source code to make the browser 64bit) 😀

The question is: Why hasn’t Mozzila released an official 64bit Firefox? Similarly to MICRO$OFT with its Office, 32bit technology, although slower, is still more reliable than 64bit. And there are more 32bit plugins. The difference is that MICRO$OFT recommends that you install 2bit version of Office even on 64bt Windows upon installing M$ Office, but you can still install the 64bit variant if you deem it fit. Mozilla, on the other hand, doesn’t offer 64bit Firefox for Windows at all. However, you can run both Firefox and Waterfox on the same machine while you can’t run both 32bit and 64 bit of M$ Office.

These are the plugins available for Waterfox. I’ve been using the browser for months now and haven’t come across a need for another plugin yet 😀 Nevertheless, I suggest you keep Firefox on your computer just in case. Waterfox shares Firefox settings, meaning whatever changes you make to Waterfox, they will immediately be applied to Firefox (and the other way around). All the addo-ns for Firefox (including language packs and spellcheckers) work on Waterfox flawlessly.

The only visual difference is that in place of Firefox, it says Waterfox and that the main theme colour is blue instead of orange.

This is what freshly installed Waterfox looks like

This is how I my Waterfox looks

Changing Fire-/Waterfox language

I mentioned language packs.  As far as I know, there is only American Waterfox installer.
Luckily, a Firefox language pack works perfectly. You can download the language pack(s) you desire here.

Once you install a language pack (both on Firefox and Waterfox), you’ll probably wonder how to change the lingo. If you go to Waterfox/Add-ons/Languages, you’ll see the lingo(es) you installed, but no way to switch the language.

You’re probably asking yourself What the FUCK?!
And rightly so. Why there isn’t a simple way to change the language is beyond me.

There are two ways that I know of:

Firstly, I’ll explain how to do it without installing an add-on.
In the address bar of Water-/Fire-fox write about:config and press Enter
You’re gonna get This might void your warranty! warning telling you that you’re messing with advanced settings (why the hell would changing the application language be an advanced setting?!). Press I’ll be careful, I promise!

Now search for general.useragent.locale and double-click on the value.

Enter the language code (hr is for Croatian). Tip: The language code of your lingo should be shown in Waterfox/Add-ons/Languages. In addition, you can look for the code at Wikipedia (either find it on this list or Wiki the language). Press OK when you’re done and restart Waterfox.

If you want it simple, you’ll have to download an add-on since Mozilla hasn’t made it simple. The add-on is called Local Switcher. Once installed, you’ll get a simple drop-down menu that offers you languages you have installed.

Choose your lingo and restart Waterfox. Tip: After changing the language, you can disable Locale Switcher since the only purpose of the add-on is switching languages.

Yes, the language change applies both to Fire- and Waterfox (’cause it is a setting), so you’ll have both browsers in the same lingo.

The only visible difference between Firefox and Waterfox is now gone. Since language packs are built for Firefox, the text Waterfox will be replaced with Firefox everywhere (even the big text opening Waterfox menu). The colour will still be blue, though, and it will say Waterfox in About Firefox ’cause that’s an image independent of the language.

Download Waterfox here.
Download Waterfox plugins here.

Tip: If you find images in this post too small, click on them to enlarge them.

M$ Office and Comodo Firewall

So, I spent the entire yesterday afternoon trying to “reactivate” my Office because all of a sudden the thing decided it was not activated.

And why did Office need “activation”? Because Comodo Firewall blocked communication between Office and KM$ service. As soon as I closed Comodo, which occurred to me in the evening, and started M$ Word, everything worked like a charm.

Anyway, in case your copy of Office starts to need activation all of a sudden too and you’re using Comodo Firewall, just close the thing and start an Office program. The same thing can probably be caused by another firewall too, so try closing any firewall you use.

After the Office had been “reactivated” again, I just turned Comodo back on and once again everything was normal.

Base

Base is an M$ Access equivalent of Libre and Open Office.

LibreOffice and OpenOffice are (or rather is since they’re the same thing) free office suits. That’s why I’ll just be saying LibreOffice from now on. Since I’ll be talking about LibreOffice Base, in case Base you’ll read here about differs from your own in a way, it’s because you have Open rather than Libre Office… or you simply have a different version of LibreOffice.
Dunno, since LibreOffice is supplied with Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Knoppix, I use Libre.

LibreOffice has equivalents of M$ Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Visio (i.e. Writer, Calc, Impress, Base and Draw). In addition, LibreOffice has a program for formulae (Math), but features of Math should be scattered through M$ Office, so no point in counting it in 😉

Since M$ Office ain’t available for Linux (unlike Libre which can probably be installed on any machine), Linux users depend solely on Base when it comes to (relationship) database management. Furthermore, Access is not provided in home editions of M$ Office, so if you wanna keep it legal and not waste too much money, you’ll buy an M$ Office edition without Access. True, the program is available on M$ Office 365 Home Premium, but licence of Office 365 is limited to one year (I guess, it’s one day less in a leap year 😉 ). So Base is often the only database management solution.

Unlike the rest of LibreOffice programs, Base cannot save databases in Microsoft formats (neither .mdb nor .accdb). It can import, though, .mdb (the default M$ Access format up to Office 2003) databases, but it cannot import .accdb (the default M$ Access format since Office 2007) databases. Other LibreOffice programs can handle M$ Office formats (i.e. Writer can handle both .doc and .docx; Calc can handle both .xls and .xlsx and Impress can handle .ppt, .pptx, .pps and .ppsx). That might change in the future and I hope it does, but for now, not handling M$ Access format is a big handicap of Base [likewise, Access can’t handle Base format (.odb)… for now, at least] since M$ Access is so widespread.

LibrOffice Base on Windows 7 (click on the image to enlarge it)

Okay, you can’t work with .accdb databases, so you’re probably most interested how to import an .mdb database:
Open Base. A database wizard will start. Mark Connecting to an existing database. Choose Microsoft Access from the drop-down menu. Despite being labelled Microsoft Access 2007, choosing that option, does the same thing as Microsoft Access (i.e. Base still looks for an .mdb database and cannot load an .accdb). Click Next >>.

Click Browse now to find your .mdb database. After finding your database and telling Base that is the database you want to open, click either Finish or Next >>. Base will now ask you where you want to save your new database (in Base native format this time – .odb). You have to do this because, as I said, Base can only save in .odb format, so once you import an .mdb database, all the changes you make to the database will be saved in the .odb database you’ve just created. Yeah, M$ Access users won’t be able to work with your database any more 😦 You’ll have to ask them to install Libre or Open Office. Since both suits are free, no one should object to that. In adition, an expirienced M$ Access user should grasp Base pretty quickly, especially one who worked on Access 2003 and/or older versions. When an M$ Access user is sending you a database, either ask him to send you a Base database or an .mdb database (yeah, M$ Office 2007 and above are able to save in .mdb format), but you should really warn the user that you cannot save the database in an M$ Access format.

I’ll write about differences I spotted between M$ Access and Base. Some things are just differently arranged while Base lacks some other M$ Access features.

The Ribbon

As you can see in the screenshot of Base above, Base doesn’t have a ribbon (yet). Just like other LibreOffice programs, Base still uses classic menus (that’s why LibreOffice is pretty much like M$ Office up to 2003). Whatever you’re opinion of the Ribbon might be; tabs, groups and commands are well organized on M$ Office Ribbon and you virtually can’t get yourself lost if you have a fringe of M$ Office knowledge. Basically, the Ribbon is much user-friendlier than classic menus and the lack of the Ribbon is a con of Base, and LibreOffice as a whole.

Exporting a database table to a different program (e.g. Calc or M$ Excel; Writer or M$ Word)

Unlike M$ Access, Base has no builtin tool to export a database table to another program. If you want your table copied, here’s what you do:
Quite simple. Open the table in Base; select the data you want copied and copy it. Open the program you want your data transferred to, Calc, for example. You can quickly open Calc through Base main window in File \ New \ Spreadsheet. Just paste the data to Calc. Here you have it, your data in Calc. You can now save the spreadsheet, to .xls if you want to (an M$ Excel format). If you want to copy the whole table, you can just select the table in the main Base window and go to Edit\Copy… or just select the table and use Ctrl+C shortcut. Unfortunatelly, the cell formattings you made in Base ain’t gonna be be transferred to Calc, so you’ll have to do the formatting again. The same thing works for copying to M$ Excel.

Moving columns in a Base table

Unfortunatelly, I have’t found a way to move table columns in Base.

Primary key

Primary key is used to enable analyses of tables of your database. It must be unique to prevent confusion. While M$ Access warns you when your table doesn’t have a primary key, because you won’t be able to do any analyses, Access allows creation of tables without a primary key. That is totally okay if you ask me, because sometimes you just create a table in Access which you’re not going use for analyses. You just store some data in such tables. While Base warns you when you don’t have primary key in your table and creates the table nevertheless just like Access, you cannot add data to such a table. Basically, your newly created table becomes useless. You have to create a primary key field in Base despite the fact you’re never going to use it.

AutoNumber

AutoNumber is the best data type for primary key. It generate a unique number, a number not previously used in a record. All you have to do in M$ Access to set the data type to AutoNumber is choose AutoNumber from the drop-down menu when creating a field of a database table.
In Base, however, you gotta chose Integer in the drop-down menu. Then you have to set AutoValue to Yes in the field properties in the bottom of the screen.

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CURRENC¥ field type

Currency is the table field type you want for money. The type displays input data as a currency (e.g. you type “1”, but Base produces €1).
Unlike M$ Access, Base doesn’t offer the currency field type in field type drop-down menu when you’re creating fields of your table. In the Field Type drop-down menu, you have to choose Number (because currency is a number and the currency symbol is only for show). Then click on … button right of the the Format Example box in Field Properties. In the popup window, select Currency. Personalize the format as you wish (e.g. whether you want Base to display £, € or $) and hit Enter.

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Input Mask

Input Mask is the thingie that allows you to enter only certain things (e.g. only caps despite you typing small letters). In M$ Access you can use the thingie in tables. And it’s quite easy to start using input mask, since it’s right there when you create a field. So far, however, I was able to find input mask only for forms in Base. For more info, watch this video.
Moreover, mask codes are different in M$ Access and Base. You can find Base codes here.

Queries

The true power of M$ Access lies in queries. The same is with Base.
Working with queries is pretty much the same as in M$ Access, so no point in writing about it.
Well, you don’t have to enable anything to use functions (stuff like sum and average) in Query Design. Function row is right there! Just click on the desired field in the function row and choose a function you want from the drop-down menu or leave (no function) if you don’t want a function [you can remove the function by choosing (no function) later].

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In the end, I’d like to suggest that you always use Memo field type for text whatever the length of the text you plan to write might be. Computer programs, including Base, might have an issue of text length even when everything is fine. Basically, with Memo type, there’s no trouble. You can freely enter one character or 2147483647 characters.

Have more questions about Base or LibreOffice in general?
If you do, browse LibreOffice forum or email for help (either users+subscribe@global.libreoffice.org in English or look for a local help).

In addition, you can browse OpenOffice forum or check OpenOffice support.

LibreOffice homepage
List of local LibreOffice websites

PowerPoint 2013 bug

Do you get the message above upon running a PowerPoint show (i.e. only .pps and .ppsx)?

I recently switched to Office 2013. Everything works great, except the error message: Microsoft PowerPoint isn’t your default program for viewing and editing presentations. Do you want to select files types that PowerPoint should open? keeps popping up whenever I try to run a PowerPoint show.
Now, whatever I click – Yes or No – and whether I checkmark Don’t show this message again or not, the bloody window pops up the next time I run a show.

At first I just thought the pop-up a minor annoying inconvenience, but then I realized that it disables the sound of a presentation. True, most presentations are mute, but some ain’t…
I busted my ass Googling for a soloution. I came across none and didn’t find a workaround. I had found a few of workarounds meself though, so I decided to blog about them to save others the trouble.

A bit more info of the bug:
The error doesn’t seem to happen to everyone. I tried running a PowerPoint show on a few accounts (on the same computer) – my own, Mom’s (never or very rarely used)  and a freshly created one. The error occurs on my and Mom’s account while it doesn’t occur on the freshly created one. Furthermore, the error seems to happen when opening some shows, but not all (note that those that it does happen to worked flawlessly under PowerPoint 2010). The error does not occur while working on PowerPoint nor does it happen when you open the effected shows through PowerPoint.
The error only occurs if you have another presentation editing or viewing program (LibreOffice Impress in my case).

My system:
Windows 7 32bit
Office 2013 (+ LibreOffice office alternative)

The simplest workaround is to simply uninstall other presentation program(s), which you probably don’t want to do since you have the other program(s) at all. Besides, having a backup office suite is good.

Another workaround is to set your other presentation program to open a PowerPoint show upon double-clicking.
Now, the problem of that is that no presentation program shows a PowerPoint presentation as good as PowerPoint, so I guess that’s not to your liking either.

Finally, the thing I used, and the thing you’ll most likely find the most acceptable. Note that this is just a workaround.
Use PowerPoint Viewer.

You can download PowerPoint Viewer for free.
Once you install the program, PowerPoint shows are still automatically going to be opened with PowerPoint 2013, but you can easily change that. Find a PowerPoint show (either .pps or .ppsx) right-click on the file and go to properties. Once there, click on Change.. button left of the text Open with: PowerPoint (desktop). In the window that pops up, make sure that Always use the selected program to open this kind of file is checkmarked. Find PowerPoint Viewer in the box of the window. If it’s neither listed under Recommended Programs nor Other Programs, click on the Browse… button. Once a new window appears, find PPTVIEW.exe. The file is in PowerPoint Viewer installation folder… Now, just keep clicking on every OK and/or Yes buttons around 😀 You have to repeat the process for .ppsx (or .pps if you did.ppsx first…).

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Changing the default program to PowerPoint Viewer, might mess up .pps and .ppsx icons.
If you care about icons, there are two ways to get the original PowerPoint 2013 icons back. One is through the Registry. The other is much simpler in my opinion, but you require an external program. The program is called FileTypesMan. It’s free and tiny, so install it.
Now, open FileTypesMan, wait a moment or two till it lists the file types, find .pps and .ppsx, and double-click on them (each one individually). Click on the … button left of Default icon text. If you don’t see the desired icon immediately, click on the Browse… button and find the icon you want. PowerPoint 2013. icons are located in C:\Windows\Installer\{90150000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}. To get them, just copy-paste the address I’ve just given you to the address bar and then double-click on pptico.exe. All you have to do now is just keep clicking on every OK and/or Yes button you come across until you’re left only with FileTypesMan main window, which you can now close.

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The con of PowerPoint Viewer is that the program doesn’t start in full screen. The window is at least maximized and you can start full screen manually by right-clicking on the presentation and then clicking on Full Screen in a drop-down menu.

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Preko cijelog zaslona = Full Screen

If you’ve come across a real fix, do tell me. Either leave a comment here, or email me (bedakjen@hotmail.com).

Windows & Linux – myths and facts

Recently, I’ve been using Ubuntu (a Linux distribution*, not Ubuntu Cola 😀 ) quite a lot lately.
My main operating system is Windows 7 and I have Ubuntu as a backup. Anyway, I’ve heard a lot of “Linux is easier and better” crap, but is that really so? I’ll analyse such claims a bit in this post, name pros and cons of both systems and say some general info about Linux.
Since I’m not an advanced user myself and often find “explanations” like Dude, do you speak English? I’ll try not to go to technical details. If you do find something too technical, just screw it 😀

Desktop screenshots can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Free and freeware

The main pro of Linux is that the distributions* are free. Not just freeware, but free. What’s the difference between free and freeware software anyway? Free means it’s totally open without any kind of limitations (e.g. Mozilla’s Gecko engine). Freeware, on the other hand, is free of charge, but has some licence restrictions. That is the crap you just click Accept to without reading it. Basic restrictions are, for example, using a certain software for private purposes only, one licence per computer etc.

*Linux Distributions

Linux is no single software, but rather a family of operating systems called Linux distributions. Because the source code of Linux is open to everybody (unlike that of Windows), everyone is allowed to create an “operating system”. Thus, there are hundreds of different distributions. Currently, the most popular are Ubuntu and Fedora, and, of course, Google Android. Yes, Africans, Ubuntu takes its name from African life philosophy of ubuntu (Zulu humanity to others). The creator of Ubuntu is a South African.
Distributions can be based on one another. For example, Mint is based on Ubuntu which is based on Debian. Distributions can be connected to each other more or less closely. For example, due to a dispute between Mozilla and Debian Project, Mozilla software can’t be installed on Debian. Instead Mozilla clones are used (like Iceweasel* instead of Firefox), which are pretty much the same as their Mozilla counterparts. Now, both Knoppix and Ubuntu are based on Debian. However, Mozilla software is in normal use in Ubuntu while Knoppix uses the mentioned clones.

Distributions can be specialized (e.g., science, education, network, notebooks etc.) or general. They vary a lot and you are bound to find a distribution that is going to work on your computer, no matter how powerful it is. An example of a distribution that works on weak computers is Damn Small Linux. This Wikipedia article offers general information about many distributions.
Most distributions are multilingual, but there are some that aim only towards one region and thus only in one or a limited number of languages.

Note that the popularity of a certain distribution varies through time. Ubuntu, one of the most popular distribution today, was released in 2004 while the first Linux distribution was released in the early nineties. The popularity of Linux Mint has been growing quite a lot lately.

*Check the subquest for more info about Iceweasel 😉

Desktop Enviorment

Desktop environment is a graphical interface of Linux and defines the appearance of Linux. Unlike Windows, Mac OS and similar OS; which pretty much have a defined interface and the appearance pretty much varies only from version to version; Linux distributions are not environment bound though certain environments are developed for one distribution (e.g. Unity). Basically, different distributions can use the same desktop environment and thus look the same.
There are a lot of desktops environments, like GNOME, KDE*, LXDE, Unity, Cinnamon… Like the distributions, environments can be based on one another (e.g. Unity and Cinnamon are based on GNOME).

Usually, a distribution comes with a default desktop environment, but others can be installed. There are also different releases of the same distribution with different environments. The name of such a release usually differs only by one letter. For example, the default environment of Ubuntu is Unity. You can run KDE on Ubuntu – you can do that either by installing KDE on Ubuntu after you install the operating system, or you can simply download Kubuntu, which of the default environment is KDE. Kubuntu comes without Unity but the environment can later be installed, just like KDE can on regular Ubuntu. Basically, Kubuntu and Ubuntu are the same thing, just “look” different. I use KDE – my Ubuntu is Kubuntu.

Desktop Environments come with certain software, but that software can be run on other environments too. For example, GNOME Media Player works on KDE flawlessly.

Environments can be further personalized. Well, at least KDE can – I made windows MS Windows-like and icons Unity-like.

LXDE on Knoppix

Both of these pics show KDE on (K)ubuntu. The above pic shows the default look of KDE and the one below is my personalization.

Speaking of environments, all environments come with a start menu. Those menus don’t look exactly like Windows Start Menu, actually, their look varies from environment to environment. The name of a menu can vary from simply Menu to Kickoff (KDE), but its function is the same – it’s a start menu. Anyway, I can’t remember when is the last time that I saw a PC keyboard without a Win Key ( ) [the one(s) that look like Windows logo]. Anyway, their purpose is opening Windows Start Menu. Now, some environments do recognize the key(s) and use them to open the start menu. Others, on the other hand just don’t (e.g. KDE, LXDE). The developers of such environments must have a serious religious issue against the Win Keys for not making them initiate start menu… I have to enter some codes in the terminal every now and then to force a Win Key recognition on KDE and the codes make KDE recognize only one Win Key.

*You can install most (useful) KDE programs on Windows with KDE Windows Installer. Yes, the programs are free.

Knoppix

Knoppix distribution deserves a special paragraph or two 😀

Knoppix is a live Linux distribution (the first one I think). Live distributions are booted from an optical disk (or a USB flash drive) – a live CD. Now, most distributions have an option to be booted from the installation disk, so people can try out the distribution without installing it to a hard drive first. Thus, pretty much every distribution today is a live distribution.
What makes Knoppix special is that, unlike most others, it is intended for live usage (although it can be installed on a hard drive*).

Knoppix is updated regularly since the software on Knoppix can’t like be updated all the time. Furthermore, you can’t install anything on the live CD (nor can you save settings on the live CD) though there is a way to save Knoppix settings on a hard drive. Well, if you do that, Knoppix kinda looses its purpose – emergency backup operating system (very useful for retrieving data).
The distribution detects pretty much any kind of hardware though you might have to wait for a release of Knoppix after the release of the thingy it fails to detect. It can be run on old computers smoothly. Note that the waiting time is caused by the fact that the operating system is being read from an optical disk like all the time. Knoppix comes with a wide rage of software – it can read pretty much everything. It comes equipped with a software centre** or two and Debian packages** work on it. Though, as I said, everything you additionally install is lost upon system shut down unless you save settings to a hard drive.
The default desktop environment is LXDE, Though, some others can be loaded (e.g. KDE and GNOME).

Let’s discuss regional/language settings now. Knoppix is named after it’s creator, Klaus Knopper. Klaus Knopper is German and thus Knoppix is a German Linux distribution. For international (i.e. nonGerman) purposes, there’s an English version. To save the (limited) space of a disk, no other language is supported (there are, however, Knoppixed based localized distributions). There are separate disks for each language. However, each language can be loaded on the other language disk by starting the console and writing crap before Knoppix loads (e.g. you write lang=de**** on the English version to load the operating system in German).
Regional settings of the German version, are naturally German (including the keyboard layout 🙂 ). English version, which should be international, is totally Americanized. The default keyboard is basic American which is so bloody limited that you can’t even type the Euro symbol (€). American International was used in older versions. I don’t know why it’s not used any more. American International has the basic input the same as basic American, but allows easy access of certain other characters (e.g ÄÅÉÖßØÑ£€¥…). Sure, basic is enough for English (actually, you can’t even type English words like cliché, résumé… decently), but English is hardly the only lingo on the planet, so if you ask me American International should be used. Furthermore, the default (short) date format is mm/dd/yyyy (e.g. today is 9/25/2012) and not only that yyyy/dd/mm (e.g. today is 2012/9/25) is international, but mm/dd/yyyy is used only in the US (and partly in Canada). Moreover, the measurement system is also American. Not only that metric is international, but the American system is used only in the US and Liberia. Okay, these settings can easily be changed in the System Settings, but why favour Americans?! Especially since they’re not the majority (and the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few 😉 ). I mean, I don’t care what measurement system you use, but metric is international, and you should be able to use it. It’s simple anyway – the base is the bloody number 10. If you are annoyed by the system that much, you can just switch to your in the System Settings…
The default spell checking language is also American English. I think that the default spell checking language of the English version should be Canadian English. Canadian spelling allows both English spellings – Commonwealth  and American. We, international fellows, don’t much care whether it’s colour or color – all the same to us, so underlining certain, correct (one way or the other), spelling can be annoying. Besides, this way native speakers get their way too – Yanks get their color, and Brits and others get their colour.
Well, all that regional settings can be modified, so no biggie; I Just think the default settings should be international or, at least, follow the rule needs of the many outweigh needs of the few 😀

Other than bitching about (the default) regional settings, I can’t say anything bad about Knoppix. On the contrary, the distribution kicks ass 😀 There are a few bugs in version 7.0.4 though, like not being able to change keyboard layout in GUI (you have to type some crap in the console to change the layout and even then you can use only one layout at a time, you have to type crap again to switch). Now, since Knoppix is for short use only, you shouldn’t care much (I even have American layout printed above my desk so I know what to type when the situations calls for it and again, it would be easier if the international variant was used), but sometimes you just need to use different layouts in short time periods (sometimes, I keep switching between Croatian, Greek and even Serbian Cyrillic). Hopefully, the bugs will be fixed soon.

The thing I must commend is the help you are provided. You’re not toyed around on a forum or with a costumer service You can even email Kluas Knopper himself. I did a few times and he replied each time (most recent being the code you type in the console to change keyboard layout) and Klaus Knopper seems to be a really busy man.

Visit Knoppix homepage.

*If you want Linux on a hard drive, install a different distribution (e.g. Ubuntu).
**I’ll talk about software centres and installation packages later.
***Note that the keyboard input of the English version (before loading German) is American.

Windows Live Mail

I’m writing this post because I’m frustrated by the incompetence of Microsoft in dealing with their users to fix a program.

I’m talking about Windows Live Mail.

Since March last year (I think the exact date of the issue being reported is March 20th 2011, but I’m not sure exactly) WLMail keeps freezing when a accessing Facebook notification. People have been complaining to Microsoft (just look at these threads on Microsoft Answers), but not only that the problem hasn’t been fixed (after a year and half!), but Microsoft actually keeps toying with their answers. When they notice people are sick and tired of their games, they just lock the topic giving a stupid explanation. What’s worse, they even marked a few threads as solution(s), but after spending hours going through them, you find shit of a solution.
We have, similarly, tried asking Facebook, which really has crappy help center, for help. They were so helpful, that people created the Facebook group Facebook Notifications Crash Windows Live Mail… Windows Live Mail versions facing the issue are 2009, 2011 and 2012 (probably even older versions, I just haven’t tried them). The last version, 2012, was released well after (i.e. a year and four months after) the issue was reported and the issue persists. Even the version 2011 had been updated like a million times after the report, but no bloody fix in a single update.
I even wrote about the issue on Wikipedia Windows Live Mail article a few times, but admins deleted what I’d wrote. It’s interesting how Wikipedia is supposed to be a free encyclopaedia which everyone can edit, yet my edits are gone… Since my claims can easily be validated by simply creating an email account of an address which receives Facebook notifications on WLMail, my guess is that Wikipedia doesn’t want go to Microsoft disfavour.
And no, this shit isn’t just happening to me on my computer. I have tried it on other computers too and the same thing happens. I reinstalled Windows and even reformatted my hard drive(s) a few times – same shit. As I said, switching back to old versions doesn’t help either and even if it did, all Windows Live programs must be the same version (e.g. you can’t have WLMail 2009 with WLMessenger 2011). Besides, if I were alone, there wouldn’t be the mentioned Facebook group, which I didn’t found, but joined only recently.

Now you see why Microsoft is a piece of shit, and people give them money… Spoiled rich bastards…
Anyway, it’s time to show you that Windows Live Mail is a piece of shit.

This is another issue, for which Microsoft has done shit to solve…
In To and From columns certain characters are not displayed. The problem is not in the encoding ’cause all letters are shown everywhere else correctly. For example, according to Windows Live Mail, Ivana eo sent me an email and not Ivana Šešo. Depending on your language, this might be a minor inconvenience because you might encounter the “chosen” characters rarely. Suffice it to say that the mentioned Š is quite common in Croatian. Like with Facebook notification, this issue is present in nearly all, if not all, WLMail versions (I know that it is present in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 8.5 if I remember correctly).

The above picture shows a mailbox in Windows Live Mail. The bottom picture shows the same mailbox in Outlook.com with the From column as it should be. Click on the images to enlarge them.

The last issue I’ll mention was actually fixed in version 2011. Strangely though, when I had reported it before the release of the version 2011, responses were like What the hell are you talking about?! Anyway, if you set your default spellchecking language to Croatian [probably other languages too – I know I tried Bosnian and Serbian (Latin) – same thing], the program would crash just a few seconds after you type something. I had to set the default language to English to avoid the crashes, which was an inconvenience ’cause although, I use English often, I mostly use Croatian.
Generally, switching to another language (i.e. one that’s not default) is totally screwed – you have to change the keyboard input to the desired language. That’s quite annoying because of two reasons. One, seeing every bloody word underlined is really annoying. Two, if you do want to spellcheck the text not written in the default language, you have to use a keyboard layout you’re not used to. The trick is to simply write your email in another program, which has easy spellchecking language switching (i.e. every bloody program, but WLMail), and then copy the text to WLMail or simply write the stuff in WLMail and then copy the text to another program for a spellcheck.

That’s it, people. Conclusion: Windows Live Mail is the biggest piece of shit of an email client you can find.

Keyboard layouts

Less than an hour ago, a guy messaged me on Xfire saying “^”. I asked him what did he want at what he replied “Who are you?” Well, I said we might have met in an online game and commented “And you couldn’t ask me who I was in plain simple English?” at what he said “Most people are not stupid and I have no time to write the whole question”. Well, I fucked him off saying that most people are not native English speakers and that we have the right not to know every single English abbreviation. Naturally, the bastard blocked me as soon as the reply with go fuck yourself came to him.

Anyway, I wanted to tell the bastard that there are like many keyboard layouts where ^ (and/or bunch of other characters) is not easy to type, but was too late because of the blocking 😀
Yes, there are many different keyboard layouts. If ^ is not easy to type, it’s not used very often and thus not understood that much. For example, ^ is relatively easy to type on Croatian layout. “Relatively” means that it’s input through a dead key Alt Gr (left Alt) followed by a space (btw, Alt Gr combinations don’t work in ingame Xfire)

Basically, in case you haven’t known, there are a LOT of different (Latin*) keyboard layouts, so don’t judge people too quickly.

P.S. All links worked today at 9:15 PM GMT (yeah, even those in the footnote). I added the links so you see I’m not making stuff up.

* To enter Latin characters if the main or an additional language script is not Latin, American International Layout is usually used. That might not be the case if the language has an official romanization without the total basic Latin alphabet (ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUWXYZ only; yeah like English alphabet) or with some additions. I’ll just take three languages as examples. Bulgarian, which officially uses Cyrillic script, uses American International for Latin characters. Serbian, with equal use of Cyrillic and Latin script, uses Slovene-Serbocroatian layout for Latin characters. Macedonian, which officially uses Cyrillic script, uses Slovene-Serbocroatian layout for Latin characters because Gajica [without Ć and Đ, with Ḱ (KJ) and Ǵ (GJ), and with additional DZ] is used as the official romanization. I am 100 % sure for Bulgarian and Serbian ’cause I have Bulgarian and Serbian friends. I am not 100 % sure for Macedonian though ‘cuase, unfortunately, I don’t know a Macedonian (yeah, even though Macedonia is an exYugoslav state like Croatia).