Dec/081
iPlayer Downloader Now on Mac and Linux
This is good news! 
The BBC has created a version of the iPlayer that works with both Mac and Linux computers.
The two systems, which have been able to stream BBC programmes via the iPlayer for a year, will now be able to handle downloads.
The BBC, working with Adobe, has developed the new version, known as BBC iPlayer Desktop.
Head on over to the labs to check it out.
via BBC News
Oct/080
Linux Now an Equal Flash Player
Finally…
“As recently as 2007, Linux users waited six months for Flash 9 to arrive. Now, with Microsoft pushing its Silverlight alternative, Adobe is touting the universality of its Flash format, which has penetrated ‘98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops,’ it claims. And, it today released Flash 10 for Linux concurrently with other platforms. Welcome to the future.”
Sep/082
QGtkStyle Now Part of Qt
Looks like KDE apps just got a whole lot more appealing to Gnome users. I like a lot of KDE apps (Kate being a particularly cool editor when I’m on the Linux box), but I just never used to use them much as they looked too out of place with the rest of my Gnome desktop (yeah, I guess I’m a GUI snob…) - this will most likely change that!
QGtkStyle made it’s way into the Qt snapshots this week, meaning it will become part of the Qt 4.5 release. Technical users can already compile and use it on their own desktop, but once Qt 4.5 is out it will simply replace Cleanlooks as the default application style Qt uses on GNOME desktops.
Jul/080
VMWare Fusion 2 Beta 2
It’s got friggin’ Unity for Linux!!! This looks good…
The VMWare team has just released the second beta for VMWare Fusion 2.0, the company’s popular virtualization program for the Mac.
The new beta adds a TON of new features, as the video above demonstrates. I got a chance to talk to VMWare today about the new beta and it is HOT. I’ll be posting a more in-depth overview tomorrow, but until then, here are some of the highlights:
- Unity 2.0 - The newest version of Fusion is really focused on better Windows-Mac integration. You can now launch Windows programs from the dock or access Mac programs from within your virtual machine. You can also link folders like Documents, Pictures and Music on your virtual machine with those folders on your Mac.
- Multiple Snapshots VMWare has worked really hard to bring a Time Machine-like ease to backing up and protecting your virtual machine. You can now designate how often you want to take full system snapshots of your VM, whether once an hour, once a day or once a week, and how many copies you want to keep.
- Better Video and Graphics Graphics and shading support has been improved for Macs that have higher-end graphics cards, and even integrated Macs can now play 1080p HD video in virtual machines with considerably less CPU overhead.
- Support for more client OSs, including Leopard Server You can now run Leopard Server as a VM in OS X 10.4 and 10.5, even on client machines (virtualizing Mac OS X client is blocked by Apple’s license terms). Support for the latest version of Ubuntu (Hardy Heron) is also available right out of the box with Unity integration. Power users can now designate up to four virtual CPUs per virtual machine, which is great for anyone wanting to take an XServe or Mac Pro to the next level.
VMWare Fusion 2.0 beta 2 is available for Intel Macs running OS X 10.4 or OS X 10.5. New users can try the beta for free and the upgrade path (including future betas and the full version of Fusion 2.0) is free for all existing Fusion 1.0 customers.
via TUAW
May/0849
Install PostgreSQL on Ubuntu 8.04
Following up from my old guide to installing PostgreSQL (for Ubuntu 7.10), I thought i’d better do an update for the latest releases…
This quick walk-through are my notes for installing the PostgreSQL database server and the PgAdmin administration application on Ubuntu Linux, and also set up the server so it allows access to other PC’s on your network.
Before we move on, this guide was tested on the current release of Ubuntu Linux, (8.04 - Hardy Heron) and PostgreSQL 8.3, but it should also be applicable to older versions (of Ubuntu and PostgreSQL) and other Debian based distros.
May/081
Installing R/BioConductor on Ubuntu 8.04
The new version of Ubuntu is out, (as if you haven’t heard that by now), so that means a fresh install to play about with and working just the way I want! 
One of the tools that I currently need (for the thesis work) is R and the BioConductor libraries. So here’s a quick run down on getting them up and installed on Hardy…
First up, run these commands in a terminal:
sudo apt-get install build-essential g77 gfortran
sudo apt-get install refblas3 refblas3-dev zlib1g-dev
sudo apt-get install r-base
This will then install the R base packages and some of the BioConductor packages, along with the gcc and fortran compilers and some other libraries that will be required for the next step.
sudo -s
R
Now at the R prompt, type the following…
source("http://www.bioconductor.org/biocLite.R")
biocLite()
Now sit back for a few minutes while your system configures BioConductor for you.
May/080
Installing VMware Tools on Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy)
If you’re a VMware user and want to play around with the latest version of Ubuntu in a VM (like me), you’ll need to get the vmware-tools installed. Unfortunately, things are not quite as straight forward as the previous release of Ubuntu yet, but it was a pretty easy thanks to this great guide.
The latest version of Ubuntu (8.04 a.k.a. Ubuntu Hardy - the world’s most popular Linux distribution) came out yesterday on April 24th. I downloaded it right away to play with on VMware Fusion, my Mac virtualization tool of choice (though I’ve now been told this works in VMware Workstation and VMware Player on the PC too!). It worked pretty well out of the box, with even seamless mouse support working right away, but I needed, of course, to install VMware Tools too, as any good VMware user would do. From there, things turned sour, and I was bombarded with error messages …
Mar/080
Unix Toolbox
Found this via a post on Digg. A very useful read if you want to get some more advanced things done in Unix.
This document is a collection of Unix/Linux/BSD commands and tasks which are useful for IT work or for advanced users. This is a practical guide with concise explanations, however the reader is supposed to know what s/he is doing.
Mar/083
Bio-Linux - Bioinformatics Tools for Linux
Bio-Linux is a specialised Linux disro that provides both standard and cutting edge bioinformatics software tools on a Linux base.
I wrote a post on my old blog a little while back now detailing how to use the packages from Bio-Linux in Ubuntu Linux, but it got missed in the migration (sorry to all those who have been searching for it). Here’s a repost and update for Ubuntu 7.10…
Feb/080
Stephen Fry on the Eee PC
I really like the Eee PC - some people at work here have them, and if I could get it past the wife, i’d happily have one! 
Seems like the well spoken geek Stephen Fry is quite a fan too:
I am writing this article on a kind of mini John the Baptist, a system that prepares the way of the software saviour whose coming will deliver the 90% of world computer users who suffer under Windows from the expensive, clumsy, costly, ugly, pricey toils of Microsoft.
The Asus EEE PC perched on my knee combines GNU software with a Linux kernel powered by an Intel Celeron Mobile Processor to produce a very extraordinary little laptop. It weighs less than a kilogram, starts up from cold in about 12 seconds and shuts down in five. It has no internal hard disk and no CD drive. It offers 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and a seven-inch display; wireless, dial-out modem and ethernet adaptors are available for networking and internet connections, three USB ports, mini-jack sockets for headphones and microphone, a VGA out, an SD card slot and a built-in webcam. All for about £200 - less than the price of a show, dinner and taxi for two in London’s West End.