Has the Ubuntu 12.04 GRUB2 Background Image changed?

If you are a user of Ubuntu, maybe you can help me here. Yesterday after installing updates for Ubuntu 12.04 32 bit, I got a new splash screen image for GRUB2. Now if you usually pay attention to GRUB, you would know that the usually splash screen is purple, like the purple is when the splash screen loads (shown above).

Science Rules! Bill Nye hints at possible ‘Science Guy’ return

Here is a picture of Bill Nye
himself

If you are a "science guy" like I am, you probably know about the 90's television series "Bill Nye the Science Guy." If you were ever hoping for a possible revival of the very popular tv series, you just might be in luck. Nye is giving his fans a hint of a possible revival of the show.



Answering questions on Friday in a Reddit forum, Nye was asked if he would ever consider doing new episodes of the show.

700 Posts of Techman's World

Once again, Techman's World has reached another milestone -- the 700th post. Over these series of articles, my logo got a nice change (not the one above in the article, the one at the very top of the page), done by a very generous community member (who used GIMP -- which is open source!). I also have added my own Reddit (which you can use to submit new articles/sources that are talking about news that I didn't talk about at my website), and I even now have my own IRC Chat Room, where you can chat with other geeks like you, or just hang in there and watch any conversations (though I must warn you, there is not very many users using this).

I don't know how long I have been investing time in this by the hour, but I would surely say it is a lot. This site was started back in December of 2011, and it has matured since then.

If you didn't already know, I wish to turn this site into a company of some sort one day. Feedback that was given to me has helped me greatly; and feedback has really changed this site for the better.

So, what I mean is that I am giving each and every one of you a big thank you. If it wasn't for all of you, I don't know how my site would be today.

And again, you can always be a good friend and get the word out for my site. I always have my arms open to welcome new visitors...and potential community regulars. As Techman's World grows (still rather slowly) bigger, I always keep in my head how all of you have helped to make it as good as it is today.

So once again, thank you for visiting Techman's World!

SnapChick Releases Two New Videos Talking about Shotwell and GIMP

Professional photographer SnapChick has released two new videos talking about Ubuntu. More recently, she has been talking about the software part of the Gazelle Professional (Ubuntu), and going over some of her most popular apps that she uses.

In the videos below, she gives her thoughts on both GIMP, and Shotwell. Shotwell is installed by default with Ubuntu, and GIMP is just a one click download from the Ubuntu Software Center.

For more videos of SnapChick going over the Gazelle Professional, go over to this page I did a few weeks earlier. That page I did will also be updated for these videos, as it seems that that page is now the hub for all of this.

So without taking up more of your reading power, the two videos are below. I know I was kinda late on this (the videos came out two days ago), but as they say "better late then never," right?

SnapChick uses GIMP on Ubuntu



SnapChick uses Shotwell on Ubuntu 

 If you can, please let me know of your thoughts below.

Bryan Lunduke's RadicalBreeze.com website got hacked, your personal info might have leaked out

If you know who Bryan Lunduke is, or know about Illumination Software Creator and bought it recently, your info might have leaked out. His website, radicalbreeze.com, has been hacked via code injection.

New Share Options Coming to You!

Everyone knows that sharing is caring, right? Well, Blogger's native system for sharing posts was very limited, and only offered you to share 5 ways. For two days now, I have added a new share widget to the area after every article, where the "Something wrong with article?" widget is. Currently the widget has 20's of 30's of ways to share, so I hope you all like it.

Blogger still has its old interface, but it is going away in the coming months

While loading up the Blogger Dashboard (to make a new post, which turned out to be this one), I decided to revert back to the old interface, just to see how it was like, because I upgraded to the new interface and never looked back.

Well when I did, the old interface was still intact. Previously Blogger stated that the old interface was going away in April, but apparently they extended it for a lot longer.

More info on the Nuketown 2025 bonus map

Users of Call of Duty: Black Ops have been seeing some notifications in the bottom left corner of their screens while playing multiplayer online, and it was talking about a bonus map for those who pre-ordered Black Ops 2. That map folks was Nuketown 2025.

How To: Gather Details About Your Browser Real Quickly

The Support Details Logo when you are not
hovered and hovered over the logo.

Sometimes you need to gather info about your web browser. Normally, people would have to manually try to find out their IP, JavaScript status, Adobe Flash status, and so on. These details might not seem much for some people, but they do mean something for web developers and people who make products that are based to run in most web browsers, such as commenting systems.

Microsoft Account Changes Arrive for Windows Live Users

While logging into Windows Live (to use the awesome Unity web apps integration), I ran into something really interesting. Remember a few months ago when Microsoft announced it was merging all of its account systems into one unified system -- the Microsoft Account?

Well it is finally coming for Windows Live users. When you visit a login page for Windows Live (I just used mail.live.com as an example), you will now get a refreshed screen. In addition, you will get some new metro like styling to the login page, probably to fit into its upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

A New Anti -Virus Using Linux to Wipe Off Windows Malware is Raising Thousands of Dollars on Kickstarter

On KickStarter is a new project aimed at helping with the removal of viruses. This new project is called JumpShot. With this software, you can remove viruses while they are inactive and just sitting on the hard disk/solid state drive/(insert storage medium here).


One of the main reasons why this project is getting so much love is that it secretly uses Linux as the backend. It actually uses a specialized version of the Linux kernel.


Jumpshot is currently on Kickstarter, as stated before. While initial goal was $25k, it has raised over $75k and 49 days are still left in campaign.

Blogger Adds Custom Permalink Support

Blogger has slipped in a (somewhat) quite feature, something that has been long-awaited...custom permalink support. Before you get too happy, let me explain because it might not seem like what it sounds (trust me, I got it wrong the first time too).

Mozilla Firefox 14 Released

Thanks to Mozilla's new rapid release schedule, Mozilla has outed a new version of Firefox, and has some new features in tow. There is not to many big features though, but still good otherwise.

Site Update - Updated Logo...again

The other day, I made a post about having an updated logo. I pretty much removed the background, and swapped in a white one...I didn't know how to make things transparent, so I just made it white because the area where I put it was white.

The New Facepalm -- the Deskpalm (or really, a facedesk)

If you follow most of the comments around the tech world, you'll see the term *facepalm* used a lot. Some dude decided to take it a little farther, with the "Deskpalm."


While it is clearly a facedesk, I still wanted to share this with you all. Enjoy the fun in this animated gif, and please let me know of your thoughts below.

SnapChick adds a new Gazelle Professional video: Gazelle Professional Software Tour

Fellow photography pro SnapChick has released another video focused on the Gazelle Professional laptop. In this video, she goes over a bit of the software she is going to use. She talks a bit about Unity, talks about the Ubuntu Software, etc.

System76 updates its Laptops with new keyboard options

Popular Ubuntu computer company System76 has just made a minor, but noticeable update to its line of small but powerful Ubuntu laptops.


This one is for the people who live in the UK/European countries.

Site Update: Improved Logo!

Hello all. Today Techman's World has a slightly improved logo, getting rid of that rather nasty pink background color. I removed it for a few reasons:

• I recieved feedback saying it "sticks out like a sore thumb."
• Nothing on this site has a pink color to it, so it made no sense to have a pink background to it.
• The green and blue colors actually do work good in a white background, so it is now white

XChat-WDK updated to a new name...HexChat!

If you are a user of XChat-WDK on Windows, you might notice something strange for when you installed the last XChat update. Don't worry, I'll explain.

Site Update: Techman's World now has a chat room

Hey all, I now have a chat room. You can use this to chat with other tech geeks like myself. I'm not going to explain it in detail in this post, because I already did on the About Techman's World page. So go ahead and go there to see more info about it. If you want to go directly to the chat page, go here.

Merriam-Webster announces Dictionary API for developers

If you love words, and dictionary's, I have some good news for you.

How is SnapChick turning out with the System76 Gazelle Professional (UPDATE: More videos added)

If you are a fan of Ubuntu (or Linux), you should have already known that fellow model and photographer SnapChick has been offered a challenge to try to use Ubuntu, as well as the Gazelle Professional's awesome power, to process her workflow. That workflow includes editing pictures and video, running her website, and doing other various things.

New Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 trailer arrives

If you are a fan of Black Ops, or Call of Duty in general, I got more news for you. Activision has released a new Black Ops 2 trailer earlier today, and now I am going to share this with you.

Site Update - New Posts use a "Jump Break"

Hello everyone, just wanted to post another site update here. Not many real changes here, but just wanted to point it out.

Some formatting tips for the Disqus comments

Hello everyone, if you did not now, you can format your text in the comments section. While you can not have it automatically done for you, you can do it with some very simple HTML knowledge.

Disqus 2012 adds image upload support

Hello everyone, just wanted to point out a new feature that came to Disqus 2012 (my comment system installed here) right about now. Image upload support was promised, and despite being a few days late, its here!

An odd error I got while playing Call of Duty Black Ops on my PS3

Hey everyone, wanted to share with you today a very odd error I got today. I took a picture of it below. It says something about a (character filename) not having 160 bones. I have no idea why I got this error. I got this error during the rebirth mission (the hudson part, just after I took off the gas mask, getting ready to enter that building that starts the entry towards the lab).

Why you shoule be using Ubuntu and not Windows.

This is the first part of why you should be using (OS) and not (OS). This article is about using Ubuntu and not Windows. The companion article is Why You should be using Windows and not Ubuntu. I composed this article offline before I am posting it here, so most errors should have been fixed.

Ubuntu is a Linux based OS. Since Ubuntu is a great OS. Here is a few reasons why you should be using Ubuntu as your operating system, and not Windows.

So, how is your internet working for you?

If you have been following my site recently, you will know that I was talking about the DNSChanger malware (click the tag at the bottom of this post to see all of the post featuring the malware), and how the FBI will be shutting down the servers that have been providing malicious DNS entries for infected Windows machines.


Well the servers were shut down today. From what I am seeing, not many people have been affected. About 42,000 according to my local news station (for the US only).


If you have no internet (or know someone that has no internet), I suggest you do the following.

1. Call your ISP (internet service provider). They might be able to help you.
2. Hire a professional to clean your PC. If you do not have a friend that can help you, I recommend you take your PC to a professional to get it cleaned from the DNSChanger malware.

If the above two are not working for you, then you might have to do something more serious, such as reinstalling Windows.


Of course, let me know of your thoughts below.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Computer Codes

In a previous post, I talked about how you can get your of your torture chair at the Black Ops Main Menu. Did you know you can access a computer terminal from a computer against the wall? Well you can. Just walk around the room until you find it. Once you get near it, you'll get a message on your screen to press {button} to access the computer. Just enter the commands below in the video. Right now I am not sure about what cheats these unlock.


In the video below, this guy shows you how to unlock a few cheats and other items.


Here is what the cheats unlock:

• 3arc Unlock - unlocks DOA and Five map and gametype for zombies
• 3arc intel - finds all the intel in campaign
• Alicia - your personal therapist
• Zork- text based game ( the grue will eat you)
• Dir- lists text and pictures
• Cat- used to look at pictures and text ( include the endings etc. .txt, .pic)
• help - lists some other commands
• Decode - used to crack the code given in some text documents
• Encode- encodes text
• "login" then whenit says user put "jhudson" than for pass put "bryant1950" then you get gamer picture

Now I know that this is from someone else, but I'll working on getting the codes out of the video as well. I'll write them down while I enter them into my own PS3 :).


Let me know of your feedback below.

How to Escape the Torture Chair in Call of Duty: Black Ops

If you were like millions of people, you have bought and played the game Call of Duty Black Ops. It also has hidden features that you didn't know about. One of them might be that you did not know that you can escape the torture chair when you are at the game's main menu.

Once you get out of the torture chair, you can get up and walk around the room.


So, here is detailed instructions on how to do it:

• Push the right analog stick down on the Xbox 360 controller until you see the chair straps. Press the left trigger and the right trigger repeatedly until the straps break and your character stands up.
• Push the right stick down on the PlayStation 3 controller until you see the chair straps. Press the "L2" and "R2" buttons repeatedly until the straps break and the character stands.
• Shake the remote and nunchuk repeatedly until the character stands in the Nintendo Wii version.
• Move the mouse down in the PC version until you see the chair straps. Click the left and right mouse buttons repeatedly until the straps break and the character stands up.
• And finally, Press the "L" and "R" shoulder buttons repeatedly until the character stands in the Nintendo DS version.

Hope this is help full for you, so go ahead and keep on playing.


Update: After freeing Alex Mason and walking around the room, I found out that there is a computer in the room, allowing you to interface with Mason's email messages and such. It is a terminal. Not necessarily a Linux shell, but a terminal nonetheless. You can even see email like messages between Jason Hudson and Mason. This is what I call cool. I'll look into this later.

Want to have a podcast that is focused on "Software Development and related technologies"? Dive into Coder Radio!

Hello all. If you didn't know, I love to listen to podcasts  provided by Jupiter Broadcasting. Those are the people that make shows like the Linux Action Show, and some other shows like TechSNAP (focuses on tech and related stuff).

Recently Jupiter Broadcasting has launched a new show, called Coder Radio. This show focuses on software development and related technologies. Coder Radio is meant to be a audio only show, but for now you can also grab a 432p video stream, that mostly shows activity in the chat room, as well as when they load up relevant webpages, etc. Coder Radio has so far proven to be a successful show, with even members in the #jupiterbroadcasting chat room asking for when the next Coder Radio is out.

Below was the preview video that was put out before Coder Radio Episode one came out. It is basically sort of like a preview show.

Coder Radio is currently at episode 4, so you haven't missed much if you are interested in taking a look at this show.

Click here to see the Coder Radio homepage. The page is also embedded below in an iframe.

Ubuntu Countdown widget now HTML5 for browsers other than IE

Hello all, today I just added a new Ubuntu countdown widget, based upon HTML5, to the Ubuntu countdown widget area. If you are using IE, you will just see the previous countdown widget.


If you inspect the widget's code, you'll see that there are two if IE tags. One is a style tag, one for the old countdown widget. The Style tag hides the HTML5 widget, because all you will see is Ubuntu (version counting down to), and the background. The old countdown widget is also in a if IE tag, so it only displays for IE browsers.


If you are using a newer browser with at least HTML5 canvas support, you'll see the widget. Of course, I will be taking feedback in the comments below.