A model paper

How to recover grub after installing windows

If you install windows on your Ubuntu computer, you will lose the opportunity of using Ubuntu, as windows removes the os loader (grub). You can recover grub easily if you have an Ubuntu live CD.

1. Boot your computer with Ubuntu live CD
2. Open the terminal and run following command
   
3. sudo grub
4. Then you will see a prompt like grub>
5. Issue following commands
6. grub>find /boot/grub/stage1
7. then you will see a result like (hdx,y) , where x and y are natural numbers
8. grub>root (hdx,y)
9. grub>setup (hdx)
10. grub>quit
11. Reboot your machine and remove your live CD
    

Freemat - Alternative to Matlab

Matlab is a powerful tool that allows you to perform computationally intensive tasks very easier way. Also you can write C, C++, and Fortran codes in Matlab. But it is a propriety software. There are several alternatives for it. Octave is one of them. You can use octave with qtOcatve GUI, and gnuplot will support for plotting applications.
To install octave simply type following command on the console

sudo aptitude install octave
sudo aptitude install gnuplot
sudo aptitude install qtoctave


The problem with Octave is that the poor plotting capability. FreeMat is a good alternative for that. Freemat is not listed in the repositories of Ubuntu. Hence, run following commands provide the platform for installing freemat.

sudo apt-get install libqt4-dev
sudo apt-get install lsb-qt4
sudo apt-get install libqt4-gui
sudo apt-get install g77
sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev

download FreeMat Source Code (All platforms) from freemat web site


unpack
./builddeps --with-ffcall --with-umfpack --with-umfpack --with-fftw --with-fftw --with-blas --with-lapack --with-arpack --with-matio
./configure
make

sudo make install

freemat

DIA - Diagram Creating Tool

Dia is a GTK+ based diagram creation program for Linux, Unix and Windows released under the GPL license just like Microsoft Visio. Dia is available in the repositories of Ubuntu and windows compatible version is also available. Visit dia home page for more information and for additional shapes click here

Open Office 3 - released

Open office 3 has been released. Its time to upgrade. Visit http://download.openoffice.org/other.html#en-US


Installation instructions

Frostwire

Connect to gnutella? Frostwire is the way to go (So far it's the only way to go, similar to bareshare)
Download & install, They've got .deb

http://www.frostwire.com/?id=home

Go Pidgin - Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook, Skype all in one

Aptitude install Pidgin, It is in one of the typical Repos,
Add your Gmail, Yahoo & MSN accounts in it, (The Gmail chat protocol is xmpp just in case you didn't know), Btw you get new mail notification on pidgin too,


Download the Facebook Plug-in from (Its a .deb)

http://code.google.com/p/pidgin-facebookchat/

which will give Pidgin the ability to connect to the facebook chat, (You can change the status from this as well without actually going to facebook)


Download the Skype plug-in from (Its also a .deb)

http://eion.robbmob.com/

which will connect skype to pidgin, but the problem is skype has to be running, (you must also give permission to pidgin to connect to skype from pidgin) This Skype thing is a bit unstable... Yet! (I do not recommend it, it freezes Pidgin too often)

Now waste time more Efficiently :D

Skype on Kubuntu

Add line below to your sources.list

or

You can use
Adept manager -> Manage repositries -> Third Party sftware tab -> Add..

deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free

then simply aptitude update & search for Skype & install

Installing Open office 3 beta on Kubuntu / Ubuntu

Open office 3 is compatible with MS office 2007. You can try beta 2 release.

1. download open office 3 beta 2 from the open office web site (Linux (deb))
2. tract the tar.gz archive:
   tar xzf ~/Desktop/OOo_3.0.0beta_20080429_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz -C ~/Desktop/
3. Install all of the packages in the DEBS subdirectory:
   sudo dpkg -i ~/Desktop/BEA300_m2_native_packed-2_en-US.9301/DEBS/*.deb
4. Clean up the downloaded files:
   rm -r ~/Desktop/BEA300_m2_native_packed-2_en-US.9301/rm -r ~/Desktop/OOo_3.0.0beta_20080429_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz

Now you have successfully installed Open Office 3 Beta2 release. You can add open office suit to your KDE menu.

1. type sudo kmenuedit in a console window
2. File -> new item
3. The type Office3 in the icon name dialog box and /opt/openoffice.org3/program/soffice in the command dialog box
4. Similary for you can add different icons with the commands
   

• /opt/openoffice.org3/program/scalc
• /opt/openoffice.org3/program/swriter
• /opt/openoffice.org3/program/simpress
• /opt/openoffice.org3/program/sdraw

Reference:

How to use apt-get / aptitude behind proxy server

if you get internet connection via a proxy server, you might be able you web browser but unable to use apt-get, aptitude or any other APT gui.
To over come this problem,

1. Edit your /etc/bash.bashrc file as root

• If you use Kubuntu
  

sudo kate /etc/bash.bashrc

• If you use Ubuntu

sudo kate /etc/bash.bashrc

2. Append following two line into your file and save it

export http_proxy=http://user:password@my.proxy.server:port/
export ftp_proxy=http://user:password@my.proxy.server:port/

• N.B. Replace "user" with your username "password" with your password, "my.proxy.server" with your proxy server address and "port" with your port.
• If your proxy server doesn't require authentication simply use server address and port
• Mine is

export http_proxy=http://192.248.16.90:3128/
export ftp_proxy=http://192.248.16.90:3128/

• Then on console type

source ~/.bashrc

• to effect the changes

Reference 1:
Reference 2:

How to install Skype on Kubuntu

1. First add the third party Skype repository to your repository list

• KDE menu -> System -> Adept Manager
• Then on Adept menu -> Manage repositories
• on the dialog box appeared, go to the 2nd tab named "Third-party software"
• Click Add command button
• the copy and past following line

deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free

• Click Close command button
• Then your headers will be updated
• In Adept Manager type "spkype" on the search text box and search it
• You will be able to see result as follows

• Right click on the package skype and select Request Install
• Then click Apply changes button on the Adept Manager's main tool bar
• Congratulations !!!! You have successfully installed skype on Kubuntu
  
• Go to KDE menu -> Internet -> Skype and enjoy...

Original source: Ubuntu Linux download and install Skype Software

CPLD programmer

I have tested the above CPLD programmer circuit with Xilinx 9536 CPLD. More information on the circuit can be found from the original web site.

Light tracker improved - Stage 2

Stage 2 improvements

App. Electronics & Automation Tech. 2007/2008

The final day of the course. Students working on their mini-projects.

More footage of the light tracker

Construction Stage 1 of the sun tracker

Construction Stage 1 of the sun tracker. The sensors follow the direction of the light! Construction courtesy of the CID, RAs Kusal, Kuravi, Hiran.

Welcome

Welcome to the official Blog of the Center for Instrument Development.