Category Archives: apple

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Your Smartphone Is Becoming An AI Supercomputer by Sean Captain via

“…Just as “the cloud” was becoming the answer to every “How does it work?” question, smartphones have started clawing back their independence, performing on their own tasks that used to require a tether to a server farm. The result is a more natural AI experience, without the annoying or creepy lag of an internet connection to a data center…

…AI will also drive convenience features. You might see virtual assistants that use the phone’s camera to recognize where you are, such as a specific street or the inside of a restaurant, and bring up relevant apps, says Rizzoli. And for once, such hyper-conveniences may not have the creep factor. If future AI doesn’t need the cloud, then the cloud doesn’t need your personal data…

…As artificial intelligence continues expanding across the tech world, it seems destined to grow on phones, too. Expectations are rising that gadgets will simply know what we want and what we mean…”

Get power on pdf files and modify them on the fly with pdfmod (PDF Mod) and PDF Editor on Ubuntu

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Since its invention, the pdf format has been the most versatile standard to share documents with a fixed layout. Everyday we share, read and create a lot of pdf files but sometimes we would like to modify them to create “new” personalized version more suitable to our needs.

For example, sometimes you need to extrapolate just a page from a pdf files or you want just to create different versions of the same file with few variations for your colleagues. For all these purpose pdfmod is the right solution for you.

Pdfmod has not been developed for some years because the versions we were able to find for Linux were the 2011 ones but, for what we know and tested, it still runs on all main platforms as Linux, Windows and OSX. Pdfmod is a little bit different from other similar programs because it allows you just to modify the pdf file changing pages order, deleting pages or adding new pages from other pdf files. It also allows you to change some main metadata (title, author, keywords and subjest) of your pdf file in just few clicks and, of course, you can save the modified copy of the original pdf file.

These features could be basic for more sophisticated people but I can assure you that, if you have the need to do this kind of work different times in a week, pdfmod is the software you will use more often. Installation on Ubuntu is very simple, you just have to open a terminal and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pdfmod-team/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install pdfmod

and you will find a new PDF Mod launcher into the Accessories menu.

To get complete power on your pdf files we suggest pdfedit (PDF Editor) which allows you to “break” protected pdf files and modify them. To install pdfedit, use Synaptics Package Manager or the Ubuntu Software Center.

Don’t forget, when you use pdfedit you just have to open the “target” pdf file, save it using the Flatten feature you find into the Tool menu and open again the “new” file to modify it without any restriction.

Easy to install and simple to use, in few words the above described programs worth a try!

How to extend your home wi-fi lan using the Airport Extreme when the Netgear router hasn’t a specific option for that

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This is the situation: I have a Netgear wi-fi router which has not the option to extend the wi-fi lan and two rooms in my house where it was not possible to use computers or external hard disks due to the weak wi-fi signal in there. The other available stuff I have is an Apple Airport Extreme with the right features to extend the existing wi-fi lan.

After many different configuration tests I was not able to configure correctly the wi-fi lan to improve the signal and cover all my house. Then I decided to buy a couple of used powerline ethernet adapter for about 30.00 USD and I put one of them near the area I wanted to cover with my wi-fi lan.

Then I connected the Airport Extreme to the adapter located near the low signal area and I was able to solve my problem configuring the lan in this way:

1- I reserved a fixed IP on the Netgear router for the Airport Extreme and I added that specific IP in the DMZ list:

2- I put the Airport Extreme in the Bridge mode and chose Ethernet as data connection:

3 – I cloned the configuration of the Netgear wi-fi on the Airport Extreme. In particular I assigned to the new wi-fi lan the same broadcasting name to the main one:

4 – I restarted the Netgear router and I had a strong wi-fi signal into all my house.

I know that the solution I found it is not orthodox but it is cheap especially when you do not want to spend money for a new professional router when the “old” one is still brand new.

Video – Install Macbuntu on Ubuntu 11.04 by seaner992

How to Make Your Ubuntu Desktop Look Like the One of Mac OS

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If you are a fan of the design proposed by Apple for most of its operating systems, particularly Mac OS X, then there are a couple of things that you should take into consideration and some simple steps to follow. Therefore, you are advised to read the following information carefully in order to achieve the expected outcome in the shortest time.

There are two free pieces of software that can transform your Ubuntu desktop into one that looks identical to the one of Mac OS in no time. The Ubuntu version is called Macbuntu. First of all, you will need to install this program onto your local hard drive. Here is what you need to do for this step:

– If you are using Ubuntu 10.4 Lucid Lynx, you will need to open a new terminal and type the following lines into it:

$wget https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/macbuntu/macbuntu-10.04/v2.2/Macbuntu-10.04.tar.gz -O /tmp/Macbuntu-10.04.tar.gz
$tar xzvf /tmp/Macbuntu-10.04.tar.gz -C /tmp
$cd /tmp/Macbuntu-10.04/
$./install.sh

– On the other hand, if Ubuntu 10.10 Maverik Meerkat or a similar version is installed in your system, you will need to use a different version of Macbuntu, which can be accessed by typing the following:

$wget https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/macbuntu/macbuntu-10.10/v2.3/Macbuntu-10.10.tar.gz -O /tmp/Macbuntu-10.10.tar.gz
$tar xzvf /tmp/Macbuntu-10.10.tar.gz -C /tmp
$cd /tmp/Macbuntu-10.10/
$./install.sh

During the install process, you will be provided with the chance of choosing between different options. These are usually dependent on the different ways you wish your desktop to look like. Most of the choices will be based on your visual tastes, so make sure you choose according to them.

Finally, whenever you need to uninstall this special package for some reason you can follow the same procedure described above, with just an exception. Instead ./install.sh you will need to use the ./uninstall.sh command.

System Recovery Tools: a possible cross-platform approach through open source and proprietary solutions

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The following system recovery tools will be useful to you if you are facing problem of data loss or if your system is simply crashing. It is advisable to burn copies of these tools much before any disaster strikes.

Open Source and Free approach:

G4L aka Ghost for Linux is one of the system recovery tools that is mainly a cloning and hard disk and partition imaging tool. This tool is similar to “Norton Ghost”. The images created are compressed optionally and transferred to a FTP server instead of opting for cloning locally. Ideally, of the several tools described above it is advisable to use the most suitable tool for your needs. The tool that will be most useful during a crisis like a crash or server failure will be a better tool.

The Ultimate Boot CD is one of the system recovery tools which will be very helpful when you want to run CDRom-based diagnostic tools thereby consolidating as many diagnostic tools into one bootable CD as possible. Since you can now boot from USB memory devices a script you can run “Ultimate Boot CD” from USB memory stick and a script on the script on the CD will enable you to boot newer systems from your USB sticks. This is many steps ahead than many of the other recovery tools. Moreover it gives you the flexibility of booting your system with a USB memory stick.

Knoppix is one of the system recovery tools which is essentially a bootable CD with GNU/Linux software. It ensures automatic detection of hardware and supports a wide range of devices like sound cards, most of the graphic cards, USB and SCSI devices and other peripherals. It can be used as an educational CD, a Linux demo or for system recovery purposes. Alternatively it can be used as a commercial platform for software demos. There is no need to install anything on the hard-disk as the CD is capable of storing 2GB of software installed in it. Thus this tool is a truly multi-purpose recovery tool.

Proprietary solutions:

O&O Disk recovery: This software tool scans every portion of your hard-disk, digital camera or memory card for lost files. It is so effective and reliable that it is possible to reconstruct data even when files systems have been destroyed or formatted. More than 350 types of files like music formats, word documents, movie, graphics, Excel workbooks, photo and access databases can be recognized, reconstructed and restored.

SuperDuper is one of the system recovery tools makes recovery effortless as it creates a completely bootable backup effortlessly. The strengths of this software are that it is user-friendly, easy to use with a built-in scheduler that it makes backup automatically. Moreover it performs well independent of the processor that is both on Power PC Macs as well as Intel PCs. It is particularly useful when your software application with the latest update is not working or when your hard drive begins to make noise. It is also very handy when you want to restore a stable copy of your system though you do not want t lose your existing system files or cases like this.

How to share notes and images using thepiratebay.org satellite websites: PasteBay and bayimg

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Today, in our Freeware Page, we added a brief review about two, multiplatform free services offered by th piratebay.org. The first one is PasteBay which allows you to quickly create, save and protect (in a basic way) your own notes when browsing on internet. PasteBay is very intuitive, quick to use and effective. The only “trouble” could be the simple http connection (instead of https) and the password you choose that could be weak if you do not choose it in a proper way. The second online service offered by thepiratebay.org is bayimg which allows you to store images for your websites in 140 different formats. Each image could be uploaded till 100MB so it is possible to save online also high resolution images. We have spent five days testing the features offered by these two websites and we have really not found any problem or bug. Recommended!

Symbaloo: a new interesting web portal to improve your time efficiency in internet!

How to install OpenDNS on Ubuntu (or XP, Vista and Leopard) for your peace of mind!

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I strongly believe that all you know OpenDNS yet. But for the few who still do not know this powerful free online tool we have posted a brief review in our Freeware Page. OpenDNS is very easy to configure and could be very useful to bypass all the restrictions that some ISP apply in certain countries. In Ubuntu 8.04, for example you have just to substitute your ISP default DNS with OpenDNS servers (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220) in System – Administration – Network or to read the instruction contained on the proper OpenDNS page if you prefer to use the Terminal. For Windows and Apple users, we recommend to follow the official guide for XP, Vista and OSX. Moreover, if you decide to open a free account with OpenDNS, you will able to deeply examine or better manage all your network web traffic in just few clicks. Recommended!