Joe Bloggs

Accidents Happen – Movie Review

mrdickie — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 14:56:19 +0000

This was a very good watchable sad heartfelt moving movie. It started off with a narration that I thought might annoy me during the movie but you hardly notice it after a while. The acting throughout the movie is excellent especially from the younger actors and Geena Davis gives a likeable performance of an unlikeable character. The mother is playing the part of withered, everything happens bad to me mother, but she does have a few justifiable reasons. The main character Billy (Harrison Gilbertson) is also excellent and looks to be one to watch out for the future. The other characters are just supporting roles but are also played with genuinitity (not sure that’s a word however!).

The plot of the movie is pretty basic, an accident happens, a tragedy or two occurs, and continues throughout the movie, underlining that we have no control of our destinies, just go with the flow people! Its an interesting story with a couple of moments that really pull on your heartstrings and you have to be with a steel heart not to feel some sadness for the characters

Overall, I rate this movie a 75%, certainly entertaining, watchable and worth renting. I wouldn’t be overly disappointed watching it at the cinema but its one you need the cinema for to be honest

To remove BADSIG errors in Ubuntu 10.10

mrdickie — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:34:02 +0000

This may work in other Ubuntus but I only used in 10.10 so it worked for me.

sudo -i

apt-get clean

cd /var/lib/apt

mv lists lists.old

mkdir -p lists/partial

apt-get clean

apt-get update

Favourite Applications

mrdickie — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 20:59:42 +0000

Ubuntu Tweak – Tweaks all sorts of settings easily including putting the buttons back on the left or wherever you feel like – via Ubuntu-Tweak.com. Just don’t go installing any compiz extras, this broke my 64 bit install of Ubuntu 10.10
PlayOnLinux – Helps install all sorts of games and apps, epecially Microsoft Office – via Software Centre and website
DeVeDe – Program to burn most movie files to DVD with the option of creating a nice looking menu
Handbrake – For Ubuntu 10.10 you need to install the handbrake nightly builds/snapshots, via Handbrake website
TVmobili – For streaming to the Sony S370 and be able to play mkv with subtitles – via the TVMobili website
Guayadeque – Music player which is awesome – better to install the SVN version at the moment to keep up to date with the many updates
MKV File Creator – to create MKVs from many movie input files and added subtitles to MKVs – via Ubuntu Software Centre
PuddleTag – Audio Tag creator in the similar vein to mp3tag for Windows downloaded from sourceforge website

Equinox themes

mrdickie — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 20:31:47 +0000

LINK

Install Nautilus Elementary

mrdickie — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 20:27:49 +0000

This improves the Nautilus file manager immensely by adding features such as clutterflow, integrated terminal to name but a few

Link

AWN with Lucido style

mrdickie — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:38:12 +0000

This is a really cool docking app along the lines of Docky, ObjectDock or RocketDock to name but a few. Yeah I know the last two are Windows only but I’m named them as a guide to what to expect.

HOW TO INSTALL
Go to the webupd8 website which is a briliant website for most things ubuntu/linux related, or click on this LINK which basically asks you to add the repositry for AWN testing and to install it. Simple.

To increase its functionality also install DockbarX which manages the grouping of windows and shows live previews amongst others. LINK

Guayadque – music player

mrdickie — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 05:50:24 +0000

This music player is the best that I’ve come across on Ubuntu. Its so easy to use and has many features but it boots up incredibly quickly even with a large music database. It has the ability to rate your songs and just play your good ones. It has a marvellous random play that plays music based on your tastes. I could go on about the many features but I haven’t got the time. Just download it from the Ubuntu Software Centre. There is a PPA available for the latest beta releases and Anonbeat, the developer, is very active on this project and its amazing he has made this great music player on his own.

HOW TO INSTALL
Ubuntu Software Centre – If you want to stay with the stable version

Guayadaeque home page for the latest development build which is updated fairly frequently by AnonBeat : LINK

Firefox Addons

mrdickie — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 05:46:09 +0000

First I install the addon call AddonFox which is an addon that will install a lot of my favourite addons in one easy move.
Addons:
GreaseMonkey – adds scripts to your favourite websites to make them look or function how you want them to
GreaseFire – finds all the scripts for GreaseMonkey for the website you are currently viewing
FireFoxSync – Sync all your bookmarks across all your Firefox browsers
LastPass – Password manager
Personas – Gives a facelift and prettier appearance to Firefox
FootieFox – Shows live football scores for MANY leagues and cup competitions (that’s soccer for my American cousins
Adblock – Blocks those annoying adverts you see on ‘greedy’ websites

Installing Nvidia Graphic Drivers

mrdickie — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 05:32:31 +0000

After a fresh installation Ubuntu will flag up that there are restricted drivers available as I have an Nvidia Graphics card. Obviously it will do this with other graphic cards such as ATI but this is about me and my setup, not a guide for every Ubuntu system in the world. Simply click on the icon of the graphic drivers in the panel and up pops a dialog eventually showing the drivers available. I choose the recommended one for obvious reasons, i.e. its recommended and its the latest driver (although that’s not technically true, Nvidia do have a newer one usually but its harder to install and doesn’t always agree with my Ubuntu).
Now we reboot and so far every Ubuntu I’ve ever owned (since 8.04) this always seems to mess up my boot splash screen (Plymouth in 10.10). At the moment I’m not getting one at all just some text. I’ve tried various little fixes but as yet none have solved it. Some get the splash screen showing but in a ridiculous low resolution it makes Ubuntu look like the 1970′s.
Once I’ve found a solution to this problem I will update this post of course, so watch this space!

How to use Multimedia keyboard for Amarok 2

mrdickie — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:19:53 +0000

I was using gmusicbrowser for a while as it was a nice interface. However I came upon Amarok 2.2 and it has persuaded me to go back to it because it has an even simpler interface (in my opinion of course!). The one thing that was holding me back was the multimedia keys not working without setting up the shortcuts on the Amarok menu and then disabling the keys in System>Preferences>keyboard shortcuts. So I looked for a solution to this problem which would enable me to use these keys (play/pause, next track, prev track etc.) in Amarok 2 nice and simply. I came upon this page on the KDE-Apps website and it appears to work flawlessly. It even allows me to still use the multimedia keys in gmusicbrowser or even another media player. Genuis and loads of kudos to the inventor of the script, Chris Brown.