How to improve font rendering in Ubuntu/Mint/Elementary?

Many people have never heard of Infinality and until today I was one of them. It is a tool that greatly improves the font rendering in Linux systems.
Infinality is a set of Freetype patches. These patches aim to provide a superior font rendering for Linux and also allow easy customization. Users can adjust the settings as they please. Through Infinality you supposedly are able to emulate the font style of various Mac and Windows versions, or use the "Linux" or "Infinality" styles.
Ubuntu is considered to have a pretty good font rendering capability. That is why even though Infinality is very useful for most Linux distributions, it's usefulness is doubted in the Ubuntu case. Well there are plenty of users who install Infinality in their Ubuntus. One of them is the Ubuntu Bulgarian Translator admin Miroslav Hadzhiev(Мирослав Хаджиев). Here is something he has said concerning the matter:

"[...] this [Infinality] project has brought me back to Linux. I work with documents all day long so the fonts are VERY important to me".

He also adds that with Infinality, the fonts are sharper and more vivid  especially on large screens. Here is a screenshot provided by Hadzhiev. Here you can see his Ubuntu computer. On the left you have the default Ubuntu version but on the right you have the Infinality with Linux style.

In this picture, the change is noticeable. Using Infinality for a short period myself I must admit that at first look you won't notice the difference. It will take a little bit but you will slowly begin to see the differences. 
Here is a zoomed look at the 2 versions:

I use Elementary OS and the clearest change is seen in the Chrome tabs. Before they were somewhat blurry, now they are crisp and very vivid. Also in certain webpages the words are much better(facebook being one of them). Combined with Helvetica as a general font for the system everything looks much much better. 

How to install:

This install method is not reserved to only Ubuntu, Mint and Elementary OS. It can be done in all distros deriving from Ubuntu 12.04, 13.04 and or 13.10. Freetype with Infinality patches has its own PPA so it is not much harder than typing a few lines of code in a terminal window.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:no1wantdthisname/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install fontconfig-infinality 

 After finishing the installation, just log out and log back in. You will pinch your eyes in the first minutes to see the difference but it is there believe me. 

Configuration:

To configure it and set the style you want you just need to type the following command in your terminal:

sudo bash /etc/fonts/infinality/infctl.sh setstyle

 Choose whichever style you want and then log out and log back in again to see the effects. Linux is recommended here. If you choose the other ones remember to also use the fonts of the system Windows or OSX.

Optional: edit /etc/profile.d/infinality-settings.sh with a text editor.
To use gedit just paste this in terminal

sudo -H gedit /etc/profile.d/infinality-settings.sh

Change USE_STYLE="DEFAULT" into one of the possibilities below:

• DEFAULT - A compromise that should please most people;
• OSX - Simulate OSX rendering;
• IPAD - Simulate iPad rendering;
• UBUNTU - Simulate Ubuntu rendering;
• LINUX - Generic "Linux" style - no snapping or certain other tweaks;
• WINDOWS - Simulate Windows rendering;
• WINDOWS7 - Simulate Windows rendering with normal glyphs;
• WINDOWS7LIGHT- Simulate Windows 7 rendering with lighter glyphs;
• WINDOWS - Simulate Windows rendering;
• VANILLA - Just subpixel hinting;
• CUSTOM - Your own choice;
• Infinality styles:
• CLASSIC - Infinality rendering circa 2010. No snapping;
• NUDGE - CLASSIC with lightly stem snapping and tweaks;
• PUSH - CLASSIC with medium stem snapping and tweaks;
• SHOVE - Full stem snapping and tweaks without sharpening;
• SHARPENED - Full stem snapping, tweaks, and Windows-style sharpening;
• INFINALITY - Settings used by the Infinality developer;
• DISABLED - Act as though running without the extra infinality enhancements (just subpixel hinting).

Infinality.net

How to install Android on your PC, natively?

Android is the 2nd most used Operating System in the world. But if you ask anyone about it you will get answers like: "The thing I have on my phone and tablet". Android is an open source project, so its limitations are few. It if very flexible in terms of the hardware that it can run on. So what about the computers and laptops? Well, as long as there is desire there is a way. So yes there is a version of Android for computers with x86 architecture. And I am talking about the real thing running natively, not virtual methods such as BlueStacks.

So the guys at android-x86.org bring us unofficial builds of Google's OS able to run on a lot of different hardware than intended at first.

This is a project to port Android open source project to x86 platform, formerly known as "patch hosting for android x86 support". The original plan is to host different patches for android x86 support from open source community. A few months after we created the project, we found out that we could do much more than just hosting patches. So we decide to create our code base to provide support on different x86 platforms, and set up a git server to host it.

Requirements:

• Android x86 ISO(you can download the version you want here)
• Either a USB Flash drive or a CD/DVD(I prefer the USB, keep the planet clean!).
• Some free gigabytes in your hard drive, this is where the operating system will installed:
• 2Gb: From Android Froyo to ICS
• 8Gb: For Android Jelly Bean 4.2 and 4.3
• 10Gb: For the latest KitKat 4.4.2
• A partition to install the new OS.
• To burn the ISO into the USB use UNetbootin. You can download it here for Windows, Linux and Mac.

How to install:

1. Download UNetbootin from the source above. Select the version you need.
2. Download the version of Android x86 that you plan to install. Remember the space needed for each of them. And don't forget where you downloaded it, you'll need it in the next step.
3. Create the bootable USB drive. To do this just start UNetbootin. Click on Diskimage instead of Distribution. Then just find ISO file that you downloaded before.
4. After creating the bootable USB you will need to reboot you computer. You will need to boot from the USB. To do this you might need to change some settings in your BIOS or simply press a function button depending on the type of computer you have. The newer machines have USB boot by default if available.
5. Select the partition in which you wish to install Android x86. It is recommended that you have a new and formatted partition.
6. You will be asked to confirm some settings about GRUB Bootloader. It is imperative that you do confirm these prompts. GRUB will be your new bootloader(if you don't have it yet) from now on.
7. Another thing you will have to confirm is the permissions of the system. You want to have a /r/w system. This is especially necessary if you would like to modify your Android x86 system later.
8. If you have chosen to install a version from the first group(Froyo to Ice Cream Sandwich) you will be asked to install a virtual SD card. The maximum supported is 1800 MB. I recommend you to use that amount.
9. Reboot your computer again.

And you are done. Now you have a computer with Android in it. It may not be mobile like meant by Google but it is cool all the same. Remember the GRUB Bootloader that you installed? It will allow you to boot into any OS you have installed, may it be Windows or Linux or Android.

It is also possible to do this in a virtual machine using VirtualBox for example but this is the real native experience.

Some Sources:

XDA-Developers

Android-86

Comic Neue The new, suited, Comic Sans

Craig Rozynski is an Australian digital designer in Japan. He is the creator of the new Comic font. It is the refined and improved version of the old Comic Sans. Comic Sans was something I liked to use when I was 10 and liked to play with the computer. It is a font, though that to this day I have almost never seen used anywhere for serious purposes. Sure there are places such as the local kids shop or a pizza place that have. The purpose was to show their carefree nature(CERN and the Vatican are said to have used it too :/ ). This version though seems a perfect combination of cool and serious.

Here is quoted what Rozynski aims with this new font:

"Comic Sans wasn’t designed to be the world’s most ubiquitous casual typeface1. Comic Neue aspires to be the casual script choice for everyone including the typographically savvy.

The squashed, wonky, and weird glyphs of Comic Sans have been beaten into shape while maintaining the honesty that made Comic Sans so popular.

It's perfect as a display face, for marking up comments, and writing passive aggressive office memos."

Here you can see some changes from the original versions:

                                                     

This new experiment shows our love for slim fonts, Helvetica being the best example in this case. But loosing a few kilos on a font make it that much better?

The font is available for download for free for a limited time. If you are interested click here and get it. I did. What harm can it do?

Justdelete.me Delete your online presence!

Nowadays its hard to find someone who doesn't have a bunch of online accounts. We all do. We divide our lives between the virtual one and the physical one. I guess calling it "real life" is a little bit antiquated, since we can wear our "virtual life" on our wrists and our eyes.

Starting from Facebook, Twitter and moving on to Gmail, Outlook and finishing at some forum that you registered on a while ago, the sheer number of online accounts that we have is something to think about. Even multiple accounts at the same site.

Sometimes it can just be too much. We have all done it so no one is better than the other. One needs to sit back and think though, what is necessary and what is useless. It is a waste to keep accounts that you used just once to check a cool new service.

There are some sites that aren't very friendly at allowing you to close your account. Yes I'm talking about you Amazon. Of course there are others who are okay with removing you from their web service, but they are a dying breed.

British developer Robb Lewis created justdelete.me to tackle that specific problem. What he aims to do with it is show you which services make it easy and which ones make difficult erasing your account. It will even tell you which accounts are impossible to close.

It ranks the sites according to the steps a user needs to take to close the account. It also highlights some sites which you might want to stop using. The service is free so for anyone who wants to delete their personal presence

It may not be easy, but it's worth doing. Click Here to check it out.

New Google Drive add-ons, How to use them?

On March 11th Google presented for the first time add-ons for its Office apps. More specifically Docs and Sheets are the services which are getting this new feature. Basically the idea behind this is to do more without ever leaving the Drive. These add-ons are not written by Google itself, instead 3rd party developers are invited to create as many of them as possible.

Now, approximately one month later there are 35 add-ons available, from Charts to Bible Verses.
To find the add-ons all you need to do is to open a new document or spreadsheet. There on the menu bar you can find the "Add-ons" button.

Click it and then just find what you want to add. Being a student, I often have to write bibliographies for papers. They can be a pain. So for the purposes of this article I am installing the "EasyBib Bibliography Creator". After you press add, a permission window, like the one in Android, will pop up. Press Accept.

After installing to launch the Bibliography Creator all I need to do is go to Add-ons again and press Start or Manage the Bibliography in this case.

The add on will usually appear in the a sidebar to the right of the page. Keep in mind that only one add-on can be displayed at a time.
To remove an add on simply go to Add-ons>Manage add-ons... The click manage on the add on you want to remove and press Remove.

Enjoy these new features! Here is the video Google prepared for this new feature.

Emails from Apple top executives Reveal concerns over Samsung's success and more

Apple is facing Samsung in federal court over patent disputes. For the purposes of the trial several emails from its officials have been made public by Apple. These emails show their concerns about competing head to head with Android smartphones.

An email from Apple's senior vice-president Phil Schiller shows his concern about how consumers perceived the iPhone, compared to Galaxy devices by Samsung.

"I watched the Samsung pre-superbowl ad that launched today… It's pretty good and I can’t help but thinking 'these guys are feeling it (like an athlete that can't miss because they are in a zone), while we struggle to nail a compelling brief on iPhone."

 "Something drastic has to change. Fast!" is another part of the email obtained by CNET. Another thing mentioned in his email are the Apple's views on the market of phablets and low-cost devices(under $300).

Another email is the one of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs sent on October 24, 2010 was posted by The Verge. You can read the full email here.
You can read there about topics such as a "Holy War with Google", "danger of hanging on to old paradigm too long(innovator's dilemma)" and plans for the new iPhone 4S and 5.
Jobs' strategy to "catch up to Android" was focused on notifications, tethering, speech and Siri.
Apple TV is also mentioned in his email and also a strategy to "stay in the living room game and make a great 'must have' accessory for iOS devices", with content from NBC, CBS, Viacom and HBO.

All these emails were revealed on the second day of the trial. Who knows what more will be revealed.

Source: Mashable

elementary OS Isis - Quick Preview

Avi Romanoff, member of the elementary team posted a video of the next iteration of the OS.
Named Isis, it simply looks gorgeous.
It was initially posted in Google+ in elementaryOS' community.
The thing we all want to know though is when will it be available. Romanoff gave this answer:

We plan on releasing a public beta and ISOs in the near future, though we don't have an exact date to share right now. We'll definitely let everyone know when we do -- stay tuned :)

Some of the features shown in the video:

1. The boot speed(approximately 10 seconds)
2. The new lock screen
3. The new Wingpanel, it can change opacity according to the background, pretty cool.
4. Some new animations.
5. New icons, and toggle switches.
6. The new Header Bar

The video is approximately 4 minutes long, check it out down here:

Change log of Android 4.4.3

Even though there is no official statement from Google on what the new iteration of Android will be, the rumors tell us about a possible Android 4.4.3. On this forthcoming iteration, there are no UI changes expected, instead the performance enhancements are the main change.

According to a newly-leaked change log Google has been working hard to improve its software. Having said that there is no way to know if these changes are true. If they are, they should solve a lot of pesky problems(connection dropout makes me crazy). 

Someone may be disappointed since there is no big  UI change, but I think that these fixes are worth doing. Google may be holding out on the UI changes for a future iteration of Android. The current one seems to be working just fine and a lot of work has been put into it. Because of that Google now is able to concentrate on improving the performance of its OS.

The people who own Nexus devices will be the first to get the update as usual, with the Nexus 5 and 7 in the front line. Others will have to wait, and older devices(2 years or more) most probably will never see the update.

The complete change log is as follows:

• frequent data connection dropout fix
• mm-qcamera-daemon crash and optimization fixes
• camera focus in regular and HDR modes fixes
• Power Manager display wakelock fix
• multiple Bluetooth fixes
• fix for a random reboot
• app shortcuts sometimes got removed from launcher after update
• USB debugging security fix
• app shortcuts security fix
• Wi-Fi auto-connect fix
• other camera fixes
• MMS, Email/Exchange, Calendar, People/Dialer/Contacts, DSP, IPv6, VPN fixes
• stuck in activation screen fix
• missed call LED fix
• subtitle fixes
• data usage graph fix
• Internet telephony fix
• FCC compliance fix
• miscellaneous fixes

Source: Android Police

The threat of Malware, visuallised by Kaspersy

Now, whats an antivirus company if there aren't any viruses? Recently the general public interest has shifted from viruses and malware to other things (mobile, wearables,etc). This can't be good for big antivirus companies.

In an attempt to remind us of all the dangerous things that travel through the World Wide Web, Kaspersky has created a real-time-security-threat-map. It shows real time threats happening through the globe. According to Kaspersky the most threatened country is Russia. It makes sense since the data is taken from the companies security network. Being a Russian company the majority of customers are home.

In itself it is a pretty cool map, got to hand it to Kaspersky. The idea behind it though is more commercial, than with the purpose to create awareness. Here you can check it yourself.

Samsung Galaxy 5 gets its first update before its release

As reported for Android News, Samsung its releasing the first OTA update for its new device before even it is officially released. A couple of Korean cell phone carriers have ignored the official date set by Samsung though and are selling it 2 weeks before.

The update is around 150 MB. It is quite a size for a phone that hasn't been tested from the masses. No one knows what it is about, or the changelog.

So if you are getting a new Galaxy S5 in the coming weeks, you will find yourself with a new update just a little bit after you turn your phone on. Be sure to turn the updates on or manually check for them yourself.