Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.

I am busy exploring Ubuntu Linux, especially the version that will run on a USB key.

You may still order a copy of Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux, but for the present time, further development has been ended. The main problem is the old Knoppix 3.4 that is used for a base, it does not use the xorg video setup, and has problems when used with one of the new widescreen monitors. If you have an older computer, and are still using a non-widescreen monitor, then Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux will work just fine.

Meanwhile, I am having a wonderful time using Ubuntu Linux, I have both 7.10 and 8.10 set up on my computers, and will of course go to any newer version that is made available.

For those of you concerned with security when doing online banking, and credit card purchases, then Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux is still the best, with the Security and Control scripts that each web browser uses. Not even Ubuntu has that. Both linux systems are resistant to the various viruses, worms and trojans that infect Windows computers, so one is probably safe when using either Ubuntu when run from a USB key as a livecd, or Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux to handle your online money work.

I will get back in here once in a while, and let you know what I am doing in the linux world.

Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.18

Beta 142, Build 4 is out and Mozilla Firefox is upgraded to Version 2.0.0.18, which was released on November 14, 2008.

Opera 9.62

The Opera web browser is upgraded to Version 9.62 in Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux, Beta 142, Build 2, as of November 16, 2008.

See the previous post concerning the Opera web browser as used in the Remaster, as well as other information about Mozilla Firefox.

You may obtain a CD of Beta 142 by sending $20.00 to me at the following address:

Rapidweather
3222 Norma Drive
Pearl, MS 39208-4916

Be sure and give me your correct shipping address.
A personal check or money order will be OK for your remittance.
This price includes shipping. USA orders only, please.

The online Getting Started Guide has full details on Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux.

Beta 140

Beta 140 of Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux is now available.

The online version of the Getting Started Guide is here.

The Opera web browser is upgraded to version 9.50.
Opera 9.50 is really fast, compared to the older 9.27 version. Big change is also found in the way Opera handles RSS feeds. There are 12 RSS newsfeeds available for Opera in Beta 140, but they do not download when the browser starts. Instead, the user goes to "Feeds" -> "Manage Feeds" on the Opera toolbar, and enables the ones to be downloaded.

The RSS feeds chosen will immediately download as one group, ready for viewing.
When used with Opera 9.27, the RSS feeds took about 2 minutes to download and be ready for viewing. All that has changed with Opera 9.50.
Now, after only a few seconds, the RSS feed page will come to the forefront, and the user can review the downloaded news story list. Click on one of the stories in the list, and a summary appears in the lower panel. Usually, the summary is several lines long, more than enough to give the user plenty of information about that particular news story. A link is provided at the end of the summary, to go to the actual web page providing the story.

With the new changes in the RSS feed setup in the Remaster, combined with Opera's handling of RSS feeds, the browser is fully ready for use in about 15 seconds after the user clicks the Opera icon.
No more delay in the linux system while Opera downloads RSS feeds at startup, they are no longer enabled until the user wants to read the RSS feeds. This is a big speed improvement over the way Beta 139 handled Opera's startup.

Compared to Ubuntu Linux, for instance, Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux boots to the Desktop faster, allowing the user to start Opera and begin surfing the web long before Ubuntu is ready. The user is going to choose the Operating System that gets up and running the fastest.

One other problem that I find with Ubuntu is that since it is hard-drive based and installed, "things can go wrong".
Recently, when using Ubuntu 7.10, "updates" became available, but would not install, without using the Synaptic Package Manager. I got the updates installed, but the skill level required was somewhat above the Novice level, and I think I just got lucky when doing it that way. The Ubuntu updates are supposed to be automatic.

With Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux, the system is hard-coded in the CD, and starts out "new" with each bootup. Any mistakes can be corrected by just rebooting to a new, fresh copy of Rapidweather Remaster.

Very nice and fast setup, especially when combined with Opera's new speed and overall responsiveness. Even on older computers, Opera has a nice quick and responsive feel to it, as you surf the web.

What about Firefox 3?
Unfortunately, Firefox 3 will not run on any version of Knoppix.
So, I am staying with Firefox 2.0.0.14, which works perfectly, and should be safe to use considering that it is being run in Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux.
Viruses and Trojans do not seem to be a problem to a read-only linux livecd filesystem found in Rapidweather Remaster.
Additionally, Opera and Firefox are run within Security and Control applications, these protect the filesystem by deleting all traces of the browsers from the linux system when the browsers are closed. The Flock browser is also protected in this manner, so that makes three browsers the user can choose from in Rapidweather Remaster. They are all good. The Flock browser has a sidebar arrangement for the RSS feeds that is really worth the time to try out Flock. It's a deluxe RSS feed setup, arranged even better than the fast and complete Opera RSS feed system.

With three web browsers to choose from in Rapidweather Remaster, no news story is going to get past you. No need to visit all the web pages looking for interesting news stories, the RSS feed setups provide you with outstanding power and performance when it comes to checking the news.

A new feature in Opera 9.50 is the "thumbnail view" of each Tab, should you have more than one open. You get a really big and readable "thumbnail", so big you can read a lot of the text on the page, and see the pictures. Just hover your mouse cursor over the Tab, and it will appear. Just the thing to see what web page the Tab will go to, without actually clicking on it. (Some pages take too long to load, so clicking on the Tab could cause a delay) Really nice and fun new Opera feature.

Here is a screenshot showing Opera 9.50 running on Beta 140.
You can see the thumbnail preview of the Tab:



Click on the image to show it full view (1024x768)

So, in summary, Opera 9.50 takes top spot in Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux. It's speed and ease-of-use, and the fact that it is an up-to-date web browser make Opera number one here.

Stay Tuned!

Ubuntu Linux, Version 7.10

Here is a screenshot of the Station Selector for XMMS (Version 2) running on Ubuntu Linux, Version 7.10. Click on the image to see it full size.



(All this is for advanced linux users)

To run this application on Ubuntu Linux, XMMS will need to be added, also Tcl/TK, to display the Station Selector interface.

• 
  To install XMMS, do this in a terminal (shell) when running Ubuntu 7.10:
  sudo apt-get install xmms
  
  
• To install tcl/TK, do this in a terminal (shell) when running Ubuntu 7.10:
  sudo apt-get install tcl8.3 tcl8.3-dev
  

The reason I am not using Ubuntu 8.04 is that XMMS is not in the download repository for the latest Ubuntu release. They say XMMS is somewhat buggy, and that development on the application has ended some time ago. So, I am using Ubuntu 7.10 in these tests.

Since I have 20 presets, that are just URL's for the stations, I need to use Ubuntu to test them, to make sure they are current, still valid, and will work. I am not including the 20 station version of the Station Selector in Rapidweather Remaster, but I do test it there.

The interface file can be downloaded here.

This is open source,GPL, so you are free to modify the application using the SciTE code editor, for instance.
The two other files required, for the "reset" and "update" buttons, are mentioned in the previous post, but can be downloaded here also:

Reset Button's file

Update Button's file

As mentioned in the previous post, these files will have to be modified to work correctly on your system, depending on where you decide to place all three files in your /home directory.

Also, the Update button, if you get it to work on your system, will just download the web copy of the Station Selector, Version 2, and the Reset and Update button code area will have to be adjusted to your system.

For those reasons, it is simpler to just use the 20 preset internet radio buttons with your Ubuntu system, and ignore the Reset and Update buttons. XMMS has to be installed on Ubuntu 7.10 to play the stations.

So, this winds up being a "Do It Yourself" kit to get the Station Selector for XMMS working on Ubuntu Linux. Once set up, however, Ubuntu does a wonderful job of running the application, especially when it comes to changing stations. Ubuntu seems to handle that better than Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux.

The Guarddog firewall in Rapidweather Remaster can block some internet radio stations occasionally. I have to "disable" the firewall if I am going to test the Station Selector, Version 2.

I'm using the Firestarter Firewall with Ubuntu, and the default set of rules with Firestarter seems to allow these internet radio station streams to pass through. I haven't figured out how to set up Guarddog to handle them the same way.


Extra buttons had to be placed on the original version of Station Selector (see screenshot in previous post) to handle XMMS lockups on Rapidweather Remaster, when doing a lot of station changes. These "lockups" are a result of the Guarddog firewall getting in the way.

If you just want to download the latest version of the interface, with the 20 preset stations, you could use a shell and do:
wget http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/station_selector-2.tcl

Blogger cuts that line into two lines, make it one line in your terminal (shell)

In all cases, be sure and make the downloaded files "executable" by doing this in a shell:
sudo chmod +x station_selector-2.tcl
(example for the interface file)

The screenshot above shows one of the available backgrounds downloadable by using the Wallpaper Control Center in Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux. There are nine wallpapers on the server, and these are changed once in a while, so the nine buttons on the Wallpaper Control Center downloads and installs the latest one for any particular button 1-9. It's kinda like a box of chocolates, you never know what you will get. (Forrest Gump).

Need Ubuntu Linux 7.10? Click here for the download mirror list. Here is one that has all the Ubuntu versions.

Stay Tuned!

Station Selector for XMMS - New Version.

Here is a screenshot of the current Station Selector for XMMS (Version 0.4.9) and the new one being tested, Version 0.5.1. Click on the image for full size.

In the screenshot, XMMS is tuned to an internet radio station. The applications are running on Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux, Beta 139, Build 8.

The new version has 20 presets for broadband only internet radio stations.
Other changes are in the control button area below the station buttons:
1. There is no Dial-Up control area.
2. The "Update" button functions the same as the "Update Station Selector" button on Version 0.4.9.
One click, and a new Station Selector is downloaded and installed from the web server.
XMMS is closed and reset.
3. There is no "Stop the Radio" button.
4. The "Reset" button does the same as the "Update" button, without downloading a new, updated Station Selector file. The "Reset" button is used if XMMS locks up, usually when it is asked to tune in an "off the air" internet radio station. Either button will close any running XMMS and Station Selector, and restart a new Station Selector.

Either version will run at the same time, with one XMMS instance. The control section buttons on each interface will download only the old or new versions of the Station Selector according to which update button is clicked. They do have different file names, as seen in the title area of the interfaces.

The new version, with 20 broadband presets, has some problems, as the stations use clusters of servers to provide the stream, and the URL's in Station Selector only reference one URL for each of the presets. If that server is off, then the corresponding button will not provide XMMS with a valid URL to use to tune in the station, and XMMS will most likely lock up.

Note that the older version shown in the screenshot is from 01/08, actually there is an "05/08" version discussed in the previous post that should have been downloaded prior to the screenshot.
I could have done that with the "Update Station Selector" button on the older version of Station Selector.

Should you want to obtain a copy of either of these versions, go here:
older version (0.4x)

new version (0.5x)

Concerning the new (0.5x) version:
Here is the link for the "Update" button's file:
Update
and here is a link for the "Reset" button's file:
Reset

Any of these files will have to be made executable by "chmod +x (filename)"

Adjust the paths in the interface .tcl file for the Update and Reset file's locations.
You may want to place them all in the same directory.

The source code for these files do refer to "Knoppix 5.1" which I tried using for this development, but that turned out to be more trouble than it was worth.
Would have been easier to use Rapidweather Remaster.

I will amend the files if these are used in Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux at a later date.

Right now, more changes to the newer version of Station Selector may be made, as well as keeping the URL's valid, before it can be placed in Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux.

Currently, the older version, with the Dial Up buttons, is the one being used in the Remaster. All of the station presets are valid as of the date of this post.

Stay Tuned!

Station Selector for XMMS.

The Station Selector for XMMS has been updated to version 0.4.12.
All that was needed was verification of the existing selection of internet radio stations.
This being done, all of them are still active, now the date can be changed to "05-08" on the interface.
Didn't want to have a Station Selector out there with an old date, with everyone wondering if I have checked the stations to see that they are still valid.
You may download your copy here, or use the Update Station Selector button on the interface if you are running Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux.

Beta 139, Build 8 is done, the main goal of Beta 139 was the update of Firefox and Opera.
Opera is now Version 9.27, and Firefox is Version 2.0.0.14.

When Beta 140 gets underway, the new Station Selector version will be included.

As always, you may order a copy* of Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux from me by sending a check or money order to:

Michael L. Dawley
3222 Norma Drive
Pearl, MS. 39208-4916.

*I'll send you two copies of the CD of the latest Beta Build, via USPS Priority Mail® Flat Rate Box. Currently, this costs $8.95, and that is included in the $20.00 you pay. That ought to get your CD's to you safely and fairly quickly. USA orders only, please.

Stay Tuned!