Cobol for Linux

Hi All,

I dont know how many of you readers are into mainframes and learn cobol and "do cobol" for a living....

If you ever thought the way of working Cobol on your Linux Machines....Then this is the way for it....

1. If you search sf.net [sourceforge], then you may find a project called "cobolforgcc". If you dont find - then dont worry. Go to this link GCC Cobol

2. Download the files, compile them and finally running them - I need not teach you. Its the same way as running your .c files thro GCC.

Enjoy maadi....

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Compiled HTML Format and Linux

Hi All,

I dont remember about other Linux Distros like Fedora, Mandriva or SuSe. I dont know if they all have a default chm-viewer installed or not.

Alright...Things to follow to view a .chm file on your linux distro...

If it is Debian....
1. Open Synaptic and search for kchmviewer, gnochm, xchmviewer.
2. Update your repos before step 1
3. Install it. View it. Thats it. Do it.

I remember that when I used Slackware 10, that they had a chm viewer by default. Or else if you download their latest DVD - then you have the tgz file. You need to just install it.

Mail me for any doubts.

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Scrabble.....

Hi All,

Many of you folks would want to play games like chess, scrabble, ludo and et al. People dont pay money and buy boards. People want everything free and online too.

This post gives you some info about some Scrabble games for Linux and in particular to Debian based OSes.

There are many scrabble games for linux.

Update your sources.list file to contain some Ubuntu repos[I have explained many times as to how to update your repos.] and then search for these....
1. Scrabble (Available in the Dapper repo)
2. pyScrabble (Needs an internet connection. It connects to an online scrabble server)
3. xScrabble (Has the UI built on Xorg)

Now finally dont ask me as to how to play scrabble. Ask your Grandfather or grandmother [Lucky if you have them]...

Enjoy maadi....

Thanks and Take care,
Ananth Gouri

OOO 3.1 in Lenny

Hi All,

This post explains how to install OpenOfficeOrg > 3.0. By default, Lenny comes with OOO 2.4.

1. Create a file /etc/apt/preferences and add this bolded text in it.
Package: *
Pin: release a=lenny-backports
Pin-Priority: 200

2. Then run apt-get update as root.
3. Open Synaptic and search for Ure - The Uno runtime environment.
4. Note that the version of Ure to be installed should be greater than 1.5.
5. Finally if you already have OOO older version installed, you will find that - the very moment you select Ure 1.5 for installation - your OOO will be upgraded to 3.1.0

Hope this helps you a lot.

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

A Linux day at MIT.....

Hi All,

Mysore has a recently opened enggineering college called "Maharaja Institute of Technology". I was invited to give a full day session on Linux in this college for their first batch of passing-out students - the last Saturday 18th July, 09.

All the folks were 5th semester students and I had to handle around 60 students * 2 sessions. I meant I had to give 2 sessions with 60 students in each.

The main thing that I covered on that day was on "Linux Kernel Compilation". I dont know like how many of them understood what I taught them....But it was a fun session for me and I enjoyed every bit of it.

It was rewarding at the end of session 2 - with the President of the college dropping down to meet me and he asked me to support him for some Linux Migrations at the college. It may take some time for them to migrate to Linux but it was a great feeling altogether.

This was the start - I felt... and who knows where this would take me finally to. I cant reveal more but try to get the implicit meaning of it!!!!

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Enter Crush/Crash

Hi All,

What happens the day - your enter key on your laptop or on your desktop keyboard stops working!!!!!!

No worries.... For most critical things like even logging to a box could be done with your tab key.

Try it out.

Enjoy...

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Knoppix 6.0 / Adriane 1.1

Hi All,

I wanted to try the new Knoppix 6.0. I had downloaded it and I went to Virtual-run-it.

Oh my...I had a very hard time... - the reason, I had downloaded the German Version of Knoppix. Thanks to my experience with Linux Tweaks...Only this helped me and my 5% knowledge of German Language too.

Knoppix... Truly German!!!!

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Then Fedora...Now Debian....

Hi All,

This is a nostalgic post....

I started my Linux Career with Fedora Core 1. Yes..the first release of present Fedora. Thanks to my lecturer - who gave me the 4 CDs of FC1.

From then on, there is no looking back. But unfortunately after I got the taste of Debian Etch (Debian 4.0), I never felt like going back to Fedora.

Does not the Debian OS rock? What you say???

But nevertheless, I am very grateful to both Fedora and Debian, without which I would not have got this kind of twist in life....

Long live Fedora and Debian.... :)

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Adaptive Multi-Rate, aka AMR

Hi All,

I am observing that I have been writing only once a week. Sorry for that.

Coming to the point, this post explains as to how to deal with .amr files in Linux.

AMR is the acronym for Adaptive Multi Rate. Please read the wikipedia for more info.

The best way to make people familarise with this format is - if you record any sound or any voice in your Sony Ericsson or in your Nokia phones - it is saved as a .amr file.

But what if you may want to play that file in your computer?

Linux way:

1. Install ffmpeg with libopencore-amrnb support.
2. After install, convert the amr file to mp3 and listen in any player that plays mp3.

AMR to MP3 Conversion command:

ffmpeg -i filename.amr -ar 22050 filemp3.mp3

The Windows way:

1. Download either of these freewares from a. www.amrplayer.com or b. www.amrtomp3coconverter.com
2. Install the downloaded files and convert the files to mp3 and enjoy.

Hope you folks enjoyed this post.

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

Ananth says sorry

Hi All,

Sorry for not posting a blog post till July 7th (IST).

These days I am getting busier and busier. I am leading a project for my entire business unit - which is also equivalent of leading it to the Sabre worldwide. So you may understand how busy and hectic I am these days.

Also I wont write during the weekends as I travel to my hometown and I dont want to write anything there or do anything - except to talk with my parents all time.

But all these do not mean that I will stop blogging or anything like that. Keep reading and I will write whenever time permits me to write.

The Asia's first Linux Magazine - Linux For you Editor, Mr. Rahul Chopra too requested me to write for his newly created site and also for the magazine. Even to him and to all those other folks who want me to help them on Linux Stuff - I have told them all that I can work only in my free time and not anytime else.

I also plan to create a new site all together - by paying for a domain and et al. If you folks have any ideas or thoughts - let me know.

Also I plan to start a forum for this blog in particular. If anyone knows as to how to integrate a forum to a blogger - do let me know.

Thanks in advance to those folks.

You can write to me at ananth.gouri@gmail.com.

I will help you folks to as much as possible.

Thanks once again for visiting this blog and keeping it alive till now.

Take care and good night,
Ananth Gouri

Signatures and Certificates

Hi All,

This post lets you know as to how to add Certificates[vCards] and Signatures for your Thunderbird / Icedove.

After you have a working Icedove a/c, adding Signatures and Certificates to your outgoing mails is pretty simple.

Follow these:

1. Go to Edit -> Account Settings.
2. Click onto your A/C.
3. Check the Add vCard checkbox and Edit the card and add your info.
4. For a signature, after you check the checkbox, browse to the image that you may want to add.

Isn't it simple?????


Thanks,
Ananth Gouri

fstab

Hi All,

This post teaches you as to how to auto-mount your Windows partitions to your Linux machine.

Follow these steps:

1. sudo through and cd to /media/ via your konsole.
2. Create folders using mkdir command and create the total number of Windows partitions as your folders.
3. If you have C drive, D drive and E drive, create 3 folders inside /media/ as C:, D: and E:
4. Edit the fstab command and type the following into it:

/dev/sda1 /media/C: fat32 rw,auto,user 0 0
/dev/sda5 /media/D: fat32 rw,auto,user 0 0
/dev/sda6 /media/E: fat32 rw,auto,user 0 0

Notes:

1. If you are having an old computer with IDE harddisks, sda* will be replaced with hda*
2. You can mount your drives to any folders. Not required that you have to do it to /media/
3. This script works for Windows installed in Fat32 format only.
4. I suggest you not to mount your C drives. Usage and its circumstances are left to the user.
5. If you can observe the "user" word in the lines, this gives permissions to the user group of Linux.

After finishing editing the file, save it and then issue the command "mount -a", for 'mount all'

Thanks,
Ananth Gouri