Working with PDF Files on Linux

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a popular file format created by Adobe in the early 1990s. Even before it was released as an open standard in 2008, PDF was widely used for document exchange because of its universal compatibility. In other words, if you want your documents to look consistent everywhere, you should use PDF. It supports font embedding, which means that other users will see the text just like you formatted it, even if they don't have the same fonts as yours.

Note that some fonts are not embeddable, so they are usually automatically replaced by standard system fonts.PDF files can contain interactive elements – form fields, annotations, even 3D objects – and can be digitally signed or encrypted. Adobe has developed nine versions (specifications) of PDF, and each new version is backward-inclusive, meaning that it supports all features added in previous versions. The safest practice when creating PDF files is to use the latest stable version of PDF (currently 1.7).

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Learn to Program with C

In this video I start a series that will teach you how to program in C, I show you the tools you'll need and some simple commands to navigate through the terminal as well as provide some recomendations for text editors. In the next episode we'll get right into programming starting with variables and output to the screen.

Twitter for Mac, Twitter for Windows?

In January, we saw with the release of the new Mac App Store Twitter released their new client for Mac,updating the outdated Tweetie, after Twitter bought Atebits, creator of Tweetie and claiming rights to the application. Atebits was also the developer who invented Tweetie for iPhone which in turn changed to Twitter for iPhone. 

Twitter then created Twitter for Android & Twitter for Windows Phone after releasing a BlackBerry client too. With the majority of smartphones sorted, what about the other computer operating systems? Windows & Linux?

Twitter clients which are widely available for Windows and Linux, thanks to the Adobe Air platform are standard and allow the user to control their Twitter account within the client itself, without the need of logging into the web interface. TweetDeck is a great client for those power users where as Twhirl and DestroyTwitter are primarily focused at the casual tweeter. However, with the Adobe Air platform compatible with Mac too, Twitter is facing quite a competition and will need to add more functions than they did with their Mac application to win Windows users over. 

I'm both a Mac and a PC as I operate both within my household so I have no bias opinion, but I ask "what is yours?". Leave a comment below!

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Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10 Review

Much better than boring old Windows XP hey?Windows XP for me is like the Nintendo 64; it has provided me with so many great memories, good and bad. But like all great things, you out grow them and seek something better and something new. So, last week I finally got sick of good old Windows XP and decided to research for something I could replace it with. 

I looked at Windows 7 but then, like all good geeks; I decided to go a little outside of the box. I decided to check out the cute little penguin’s offerings. Now Linux isn't something new to me, I have used several variations of it, from Ubuntu to Puppy Linux and even the horrifying Mobilin. So when I stumbled upon the netbook remix of Ubuntu, I simply had to have it.

Now, I am not going to bore you with every little detail on it. So long story short, it’s a version of Ubuntu especially designed for netbooks. After installing the distribution I was immediately amazed by how professional and well designed it was. Evolution Mail hasn’t skipped a beat with my Mobile Me account and the remix also picked up all my drivers and function keys, which is something very important to me. Now, if only Windows install and set-ups were that easy!

But like all things it’s not perfect. At times it is slow and sluggish just opening a new document can take a while, so I think a RAM upgrade might be in order. I was also worried about the printer support, but Ubuntu’s programmers slapped me in the face with that one! Installing a printer on this operating system is as easy as it comes. It is seriously, just plug and play.

So, a week has past and what do I think? I think if anyone wants to dip his, or her, feet into the world of Linux, give this a go. Or at least give Ubuntu a go. It is very stable, gives you plenty of additional software choices on the built-in software centre, also its easy to navigate and above all, its free!

If you want to give the Ubuntu remix a go, but you are still a bit hesitant, please post a comment below. I would love to answer your questions!

So what do you think? Have you used Ubuntu before? If so, what was it like for you?

Ubuntu 10.04 Review

I have been using the free operating system Ubuntu 10.04, and so far I'm loving it. The main reason I switched in the first place was because I just couldn't take anymore of Windows Vista, which is understandable. I'm very impressed with the way it is so easy to customise and install programs using this OS, and due to these reasons my desktop now has a dock and no task bar, which I'm very happy about.

Ubuntu has a nice little program called Ubuntu Software Centre, which allows you to browse for any peice of software you would like to install onto your computer, using names or keywords. When you find the program you're looking for you simply click the "Install" button, and everything else is taken care of for you. If you decide you want to uninstall a program, all you have to do is go back into the Ubuntu Software Centre, find that program and click "Remove." It couldn't be easier!

Now let's talk about one of the main factors that really impresses me about Ubuntu; it's FREE! In my opinion it is so much better than Windows Vista. In fact, it's better than any Windows operating systems before Windows 7, so why use an OS that isn't so good that you have to pay for, if you could get a much better one for free?

You can download it here.

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