Transmission BitTorrent Client - Lightweight Alternative to Deluge

Transmission is a lightweight BitTorrent client built in GTK, with a clean and simple interface. Although most people prefer more popular clients like Vuze, Deluge or KTorrent, Transmission incorporates all the major features one needs for downloading torrents and can prove a very good alternative to those, especially if you don't need all those whistles and bells.


Running in Ubuntu 9.04


Transmission comes with an intuitive interface which doesn't stay in the way of the user. It's been stripped of all the bloated other clients may have, but still it features:
- various useful information about the currently downloading torrent (global activity, peers, trackers, files)
- speed limiting options for downloading and uploading
- creation of your own torrents
- web interface
- pause/resume downloading

Transmission will also allow to sort torrents by share ratio, progress, name, downloaded time etc. and it provides a minimal mode (accessible through Ctrl+M), which will display less information about torrents.


Showing torrent info


Although it has no integrated searching capabilities, it has an option to automatically add torrents from a specified directory, so the downloads can be started automatically when saving a torrent file with your browser to that specified folder.

Another nice feature are desktop notifications, and also the possibility to connect to trackers via a proxy.

Overall, Transmission is a really good recommendation if you don't need a bigger, more bloated client. It integrates very well with GNOME and is far more lighter than Deluge or Vuze. It will do its job very well without giving you any hassle.
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Banshee 1.6 Beta 1 Review

Banshee is one of the popular audio players for GNOME, and maybe the first alternative to Rhythmbox, the default player coming with this desktop environment. Banshee has made some amazing things in the last year, especially since 1.0 came out. Each new release brings something new, it gets more stable and new features are added.


Banshee allows to organise media files in a collection, it supports plugins, podcasts, radio stations, Last.fm integration, cover art fetching, playlist sorting, tag editor, ratings, notifications and even more.

Although this is not tagged as a stable release, I decided to take a look at it and see what is new since the 1.4 series. This beta comes with various new features, many bug fixes and improvements. To mention just a few:

One of the new features in 1.6 is the ability to match several characters to their ASCII equivalent when searching in the playlist. For example, o will also match ö and vice versa. I think this is a great new feature, because it makes it easier to search and play tracks which have non-English characters in their names.

Banshee can now import the library from Rhythmbox, so if you want to made the transition from this player to Banshee, you don't have to worry for losing your library. The score column is now automatically updated after playing a song too.

Banshee has the same clean interface, typical to so many GTK audio players. Everything looks in place, everything is easy to find and intuitive to use. To the left there is the side panel, while the music library and the playlist takes most of the center area. The Last.fm panel is located at the bottom of the main window. Here's how a usual instance of Banshee looks like:


Banshee 1.6 Beta 1 running in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope


As I already mentioned, Banshee comes with Last.fm integration (that means retrieval of recommended artists, top albums by playing artist, song submission, and the profile information - recently loved tracks, recently played tracks and top artists).


Last.fm integration


To conclude, I was positively impressed by this Banshee release. And it's only a beta currently, so the final release should be even more impressing! Great work, and a great, powerful audio player which really deserves not to be missing from a top audio players on Linux list.
Banshee homepage
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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How-To: Install Firefox 3.5 in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

Firefox 3.5 comes with several great new features, like the private browsing mode or the support for open video integration (full review here). Since Ubuntu Jaunty comes with version 3.0.11, if you want to try the new Firefox 3.5 release all you have to do is follow the few steps below:

First, download the tarball from the official website, then uncompress it using:

tar -xjf firefox-3.5.tar.bz2

Then, place the firefox directory somewhere inside your home directory, say, ~/apps/, where ~ is your home directory. Next, make a shortcut to the firefox executable - right click on the desktop, click on Create Launcher, and at the Command field enter the command below:

/home/USER/path/to/firefox/firefox -P

Replace /path/to/firefox/ and USER. For example, if your username is ubuntu and you copied the firefox directory inside ~/apps/ (where ~ is your home directory), this command should look like:

/home/ubuntu/apps/firefox/firefox -P

The -P switch will start Firefox 3.5 using the profile manager, so from here all you need to do is to create a new profile for your Firefox 3.5:


Click on Create Profile...



Choose the name of the profile


Additionally, you can specify the --no-remote switch (firefox --no-remote -P) so you can run both your currently 3.0.11 and 3.5 instances at the same time. The --no-remote switch doesn't connect Firefox to a currently running instance.


Firefox 3.5 running in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty


Updated: July 1, 2009
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Firefox 3.5 - A Really Impressive Release

Firefox 3.5 was released just a couple of hours ago and it comes with great new features and a new version of Gecko, the rendering engine. Firefox is currently the most popular browser on the Linux platform and the top choice on Windows after Internet Explorer (although there are statistics showing it beats IE in terms of popularity in some countries).


Firefox 3.5 running in Ubuntu 9.04


Maybe the most important new feature in this release, at least for the open-source community, is the support for the video and audio tags, which make possible to view movies in the open video format Ogg Theora. These can be embedded in web pages just like YouTube videos are, but without the need of Flash. Besides, you can also directly download the video by right clicking on it. Mozilla has put up on their homepage an example of how this works.


Firefox 3.5 comes with support for open video formats - notice that you can save the videos to your computer



Another new feature is the presence of a plus sign next to the tab to the left, just like Google Chrome and Opera 10 have, this button allowing you to open a new, empty tab.


New tab button


According to the official website, 3.5 is twice as fast compared to 3.0.x, and that is due to the new version of Gecko, the rendering engine used by Firefox, which reached now version 1.9.1.

Another new feature introduced in Firefox 3.5 is the private browsing mode (accessible via the Tools -> Start Private Browsing menu entry), which allows you to browse the web safely, without leaving any browsing history behind after exiting this mode.


Private browsing - another new feature of 3.5


Another new feature is the ability to clear just the browsing history of the last couple of hours, which is very useful when you want to get rid of this history, but keep things like the number you accessed a web page for faster access in the awesome bar.

Firefox gets more powerful with each new release, and this one made no exception. To mention some other cool features, there is the RSS reader, over 60,000 available add-ons on the Mozilla add-ons site, the awesome bar which makes accessing web pages very fast, the integrated search engines (available via Ctrl+K), support for themes, session restore, spell-checker, not to mention a huge community and available documentation.

I liked Firefox 3.5 very much, especially the open video format support, and the fact that it didn't get more bloated with this new release.
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Consumer Reports on the Honda Insight

Consumer Reports does not like the Honda Insight and wasn't shy about telling the world how they feel about it. "The Insight achieved an excellent 38 mpg overall in CR's tests but fell short in ride quality, handling, interior noise, acceleration, rear-seat, access and visibility."

That doesn't sound appealing or promising.

"The Insight is the most disappointing Honda Consumer Reports has tested in a long time," said David Champion, senior director of CR's Auto Test Center. "The Insight is a noisy, stiff-riding car with clumsy handling that is nothing like the Fit on which it is based. Also, Electronic Stability Control is only available on the highline EX version."

The Honda Insight seats five and gets excellent fuel economy, but it's a noisy car with a stiff ride and clumsy handling. At its cornering limits, the Insight plows straight ahead early on in tight turns and the tail can slide out too quickly for stability control to completely prevent it. The Insight EX, ($21,790 Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price as tested), is powered by a 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine with a 13-hp electric motor combine for 98 hp that delivers 38 mpg overall. The continuously variable transmission performs smoothly. Unlike a full hybrid, the Insight requires the gas engine to turn whenever the car is moving. Braking is Very Good. Cargo space behind the rear seats is adequate.

At the end of the day, the Insight fell to 21 out of 22 for small hatchbacks and wagons, slightly outpointing the Dodge Caliber because of its higher fuel economy rating.

The low rating will result in the Honda Insight being left out of the 'Recommended' rating by Consumer Reports.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Tip of the Day: Make a Memory Usage Script

Here's a simple memory usage script made in Bash, which will use the parsed output of free -tom utility. First, here is what the -tom argument stands for:

-t displays a line containing the total amount of memory (physical memory + swap)
-o disables the display of a buffer line
-m displays sizes in MB

Here goes the script, which outputs the total, used and free memory:

#!/bin/bash

# total memory
memt=$(free -tom | grep "Total:" | awk '{print $2}')
# used memory
memu=$(free -tom | grep "Total:" | awk '{print $3}')
# free memory
memf=$(free -tom | grep "Total:" | awk '{print $4}')
echo "Total memory: $memt MB"
echo "Used memory: $memu MB"
echo "Free memory: $memf MB"

You can put this in a file of your choice, say memory.sh, make it executable (chmod 755 memory.sh), put it inside ~/bin (or a directory of your choice) and then include that directory in your $PATH, so you'll be able to run the script just by typing memory.sh.
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Sexy Car Wash

Knight Racer Girls (2)
Originally uploaded by gfbphoto

Here is another Sexy Summer Car Wash! I need to move to a year round warm climate. I would have the paint washed off my car!

Car Buying TipsSource URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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How-To: Compile and Install Amarok 2.1.1 in Ubuntu 9.04

Amarok 2.1.1 was released on June 17th and it includes several bug fixes and a few new features compared to 2.1. Among the new features worth mentioning: there is available support for compilations with over 60 artists, there is an option to hide the context view now. For a full list of changes and bug fixes, have a look at the announcement on the official website.

Kubuntu 9.04 ships with 2.0, so to get the latest Amarok you can either use the PPA repository (which can be a little delayed) or compile from source. Here are the steps you need to follow in order to compile 2.1.1 from source:

1. Install the development libraries
In Konsole or GNOME Terminal, type:

sudo apt-get build-dep amarok

This will fetch and install the development packages needed to compile the latest Amarok release. Also, install these packages too:

sudo apt-get install libtag-extras-dev libmysql++-dev libgdk-pixbuf-dev libgtk2.0-dev

2. Get the source tarball
Download the Amarok source tarball from here, then uncompress it:

tar -xjf amarok-2.1.1.tar.bz2

3. Compile and install Amarok
You may need to remove your existing Amarok installation first:

sudo apt-get remove --purge amarok

(Notice that this will erase your entire Amarok settings, scripts, ratings etc. *Skip* this step if you want to keep those!)

rm -rf ~/.kde/share/apps/amarok/
rm ~/.kde/share/config/amarok*

Then, make sure the current working directory is amarok-2.1.1 and type:

cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
make
sudo make install

For the last command you will need to enter your user password. This should be all, just fire up Amarok and 2.1.1 should be running now.
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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2008 Saturn Vue Recall Notice

GM is recalling the 2008 Saturn Vue with body color outside door handles. It seems the door handles may bind or stick, which means the door might not latch when it's closed.

If the door doesn't latch, an unbelted occupant could fall out of the vehicle, which could certainly be dangerous. Chrome door handles are going to be used to replace the current door handles free of charge.

I'm not clear if this affects the hybrid Vue.

44,451 vehicles are being recalled beginning on or before August 18, 2009.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Toyota to Build Hybrd in UK

Toyota has plans to start building a hybrid Auris in the UK by the end of the year according to the Times.

The Burnaston plant near Derby was selected to build the hybid Auris hatchback, after months of negotiation with the government. Toyota is expecting some government assistance in the new production.

The Auris Hybrid will use the 1.8 litre engine from the Prius mated to an electric motor and is expected to get 72.4 mpg (I'm assuming that's imperial). The Auris is smaller and lighter than the Prius, so it should get a lower carbon dioxide rating.

It's expected to compete against the Insight, with a price tag similar to the cheaper hybrid from Honda.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Yakuake - Great Quake-Like Terminal Application for KDE4

A while ago I wrote an article called 13 Terminal Emulators for Linux, where I briefly reviewed all those popular shell-like applications and a few flavours of xterm or rxvt. In this article I will talk about Yakuake, a powerful terminal application for Linux, and also the KDE counterpart of Tilda in GNOME.


Yakuake running in Kubuntu 9.04


Yakuake is a Quake-like terminal, which means it behaves just like any console in Quake or usual first-person shooter games. It supports global keybindings and can be invoked with F12 and hided with the same keyboard shortcut when you finished your job with it. This way it will run in background but it won't eat your taskbar or system tray space.


Among the features Yakuake ships with are:
- global keybindings (F12 shows/hides the console)
- the ability to inherit Konsole's settings
- transparency effects, it also supports backgrounds
- it supports profiles
- configurable size and animation


Yakuake currently has an updated page on kde-apps.org, but the other homepage doesn't seem to be maintained at the moment (here). Just use the kde-apps.org page for now. In Kubuntu, you can use sudo apt-get install yakuake to get version 2.9.4.

Yakuake is a powerful and pretty popular terminal application for KDE, and maybe the perfect alternative to Konsole. It doesn't stay in the way of the user and it can inherit the settings of Konsole too.
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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How-To: Compile and Install digiKam 1.0.0 Beta 1 in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

digiKam is a free photo management application for KDE, and probably the best alternative to Picasa from Google. digiKam includes many photo retouching and photo manipulation functions, and it allows to organise your collection into albums.

Kubuntu 9.04 comes with version 0.10 for KDE4, but in the first beta of version 1.0 was released on June 9. Here are several easy steps for compiling digiKam from source and installing it on a Ubuntu/Kubuntu Jaunty machine.

1. Install the needed dependencies
In a terminal window, type:

sudo apt-get build-dep digikam

This command will fetch all the needed development libraries and the meta package build-essential, which includes compilation tools.

2. Get the source code
Next, download the source code from the official homepage of digiKam, then uncompress it:

tar -xjf digikam-1.0.0-beta1.tar.bz2

3. Compile and install digiKam
Make sure the current working directory is digikam-1.0.0-beta1, then type the following:

cmake .
make
sudo make install

For the last command you will need the user password. Compilation may take a while, so have patience. Once the installation is over, you can start digiKam by either typing digikam in a terminal window or pressing Alt+F2 and typing digikam in the run box that appears.


digiKam 1.0.0 Beta 1 running in Kubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

digiKam homepage
Download digiKam source from SourceForge.net project page
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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How-To: Compile and Install SMPlayer from Source in Debian Lenny

SMPlayer uses the mplayer engine for displaying videos and it's one of the most powerful and popular video players out there. Built using the Qt 4 toolkit, SMPlayer offers great features and it's highly customisable.

The latest version is 0.6.7, which brings experimental support for DVD menus and several other improvements and bug fixes over the previous release, 0.6.6. Here are several steps to follow in order to build SMPlayer from source in Debian Lenny:

1. Enable the sources repositories
Edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file as root with your favourite text editor (e.g. nano /etc/apt/sources.list or kdesu /etc/apt/sources.list) and make sure you have a line which starts with deb-src, as in the example below:

deb-src ftp://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free

You can replace the TLD with the one of your country (e.g. instead of ro use fi for Finland, de for Germany etc.) Next, update the packages list as root:

apt-get update

2. Install the needed dependencies
As root, type:

apt-get build-dep smplayer
apt-get install devscripts

This will install the tools needed to build SMPlayer and also the development libraries on which it depends.

3. Download the source tarball and uncompress it
Get the latest source for SMPlayer (which is 0.6.7 at the time of writing) from the official website (the file is called smplayer-0.6.7.tar.bz2). To uncompress it, make sure the current working directory is the one where you saved the source and type:

tar -xjf smplayer-0.6.7.tar.bz2

4. Compile and install SMPlayer
Change the working directory to smplayer-0.6.7 and issue the commands:

make QMAKE=/usr/share/qt4/bin/qmake

And to install it type as root:

make install

This should be all. SMPlayer should be inside /usr/local/bin/smplayer.

Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Miro 2.0 - Watch TV Podcasts and Videos in HD

Miro is an open-source and cost-free application for watching Internet TV in high definition quality. It's available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

The latest release is 2.0.5 and it was released on June 25, and some of the features it comes with are:
- watch Internet videos in HD, subscribe to many, completely free podcasts
- resume playing to where you stopped a video last time
- support for many video formats (including MKV, AVI, Quicktime)
- it allows the creation of video playlists
- support for the BitTorrent protocol
- support for audio podcasts
- Miro can search and download videos from sites like YouTube or Yahoo!


Usual interface when Miro starts


Beside being an Internet TV application, Miro can also play various video files, including AVI, WMV or MPEG. It also supports Matroska MKV video files, but it won't play SWF ones.


Miro playing an MKV video file


Miro comes by default with several HD podcasts, for example Wild Life or INSERT, so you can start downloading and viewing them immediately. One of the drawbacks is that Miro doesn't seem able to play Shockwave Flash videos (SWF), so you will have to use a player like mplayer for those.


Watching a Wildlife video podcast in HD


Miro also allows to download torrents and also to subscribe to torrent feeds, then access them from within Miro. The default website included is LegalTorrents, which provides completely legal and free audio and video torrents.


Download torrents from within Miro and watch them


I think Miro is just great for watching TV podcasts. You can download entire videos and even make personal collections depending on your preferences. Another plus is the support for BitTorrent protocol.

Official Miro homepage
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Eschalon Review: Commercial Role-Playing Game for Linux

Eschalon is a turn-based RPG (role-playing game), which tries to reproduce the feeling of classic RPG games. It's closed-source, available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows, and it comes with a demo too. The full version is available as a download for $19.95.

The currently available version is Eschalon Book I, and you can download the demo from the official website. To start the game, uncompress the tarball and run it as ./Eschalon\ Book\ I\ Demo from a terminal or just double-click the Eschalon Book I Demo executable.

The game uses OpenGL and a native resolution of 800x600, which is also the only resolution available. It can be run in either windowed mode or fullscreen.


The Launch menu - you can select the graphics renderer and toggle the windowed/fullscreen modes here


Upon starting a new game, you will get to choose a character, including its origin, axiom and class (e.g. healer, rogue, fighter etc.). You can also spend skill and attribute points for adding certain skills or increasing attribute. For example, you can buy skills like Light Armor or Survival for 3 skill points each, and increase attributes like Strength, Speed or Wisdom for 1 point each. After selecting your character and deciding on what to spend the points, the actual playing part begins.


The character editor - choose a character and spend skill and attribute points



Playing the demo


In my opinion, the major drawback of Eschalon: Book I is the low resolution. 800x600 just doesn't cut it anymore these days, and it can look a little ugly on big screens or too small when ran in windowed mode. On the other hand, the good thing is that Eschalon provides a demo. Book II is also on its way, and, according to the homepage, it will provide a native resolution of 1024x768.

As a conclusion, Eschalon can be a good solution for those who like RPG games and don't care about a high resolution. The price is not high, it comes with a manual in PDF format, and it's addictive once you grasp the way to play it.
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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6 Bash Productivity Tips

1. Use !!
Typing !! followed by Enter will bring back and execute the last command (same as Ctrl+P followed by Enter).

2. Use Emacs-like shortcuts
Emacs-like shortcuts make use of the Ctrl and Alt keys, and the big advantage of navigating and manipulating text in a Bash prompt is that you won't have to move your fingers away from the typing position (to access the arrow keys, or the Home, Page Up and Page Down keys). Notice that most of those work well inside manual pages too, or when using the Nano editor, or the less and more pagers.

Ctrl+D - or EOF (end-of-file) will quit the current Bash session
Ctrl+P - bring back the last command executed
Ctrl+N - bring the next command executed
Ctrl+U - delete all from the cursor to the left
Ctrl+K - delete all from the cursor to the right
Ctrl+B - go back one character
Ctrl+F - go forward one character
Alt+B - go back one word
Alt+F - go forward one word

3. Make manual pages coloured
I think this tip is a productivity tip because once a manual page is shown coloured, it is easier, clearer to read. Just add the following inside the ~/.bashrc file, where ~ is your home directory (notice that each line starts with export):

export LESS_TERMCAP_mb=$'\E[01;31m' # begin blinking
export LESS_TERMCAP_md=$'\E[01;38;5;74m' # begin bold
export LESS_TERMCAP_me=$'\E[0m' # end mode
export LESS_TERMCAP_se=$'\E[0m' # end standout-mode
export LESS_TERMCAP_so=$'\E[38;5;246m' # begin standout-mode - info box export LESS_TERMCAP_ue=$'\E[0m' # end underline
export LESS_TERMCAP_us=$'\E[04;38;5;146m' # begin underline

Then, type:

source ~/.bashrc

And try any manual page (e.g. man bash). Here's how a coloured man page looks like using the presets above:


Coloured man page


4. Use your own scripts
If you have basic knowledge of Bash scripting, you can create scripts and put them in a directory included in your $PATH. You can use something like ~/bin or ~/usr/bin, where ~ is your home directory.

5. Copy/paste using Shift+Insert
Although this one is not Bash-specific, it's very useful when you need to quickly copy/paste some text in your terminal. The same can be accomplished using the middle-click mouse button.

6. Use aliases
One of the powerful features of Bash is that it makes use of aliases. Those are usually short commands which perform some associated, longer command or commands. For example, to update and upgrade your Ubuntu installation you would type sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade, and to create an alias for it you would only have to add something like the following inside the ~/.bashrc file:

alias update='sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade'

Now, each time you type update, the command inside the single quotes will be executed.

Have some other tips that others may find useful? Please share them in the comments below.
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Ford Sets Up Cash For Clunkers Website

Like Honda and Toyota, Ford now has a 'cash for clunkers' website up and running.  Unlike the others, Ford has set theirs up so that you can check to see if your current vehicle qualifies to be traded in (and subsequently crushed).  Check it out at www.letfordrecycleyourride.com (screenshot below).



Down at the bottom, they point out how you can also save money on some of their current models, which they obviously hope will inspire you not only to check your current car, but check out a Ford for your new vehicle.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Ford GT MKII

538
.
acrylic on paper 7x10" sold



just finished reading Go like Hell by A.J.Baime
Wow what a read!
couldn't put it down
it's a book about the high stakes quest of Ford
to beat the Ferrari's at Le Mans!
it is fast moving,dangerous and bitter sweet...
.
this image is available as a print
just contact rijbema@hotmail.comfor details
.
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Honda Points Out Just About Any of Their Vehicles Qualify

Although it may be unnecessary to point out, Honda wants you to know their cars are fuel efficient.  In fact, almost every car they build qualifies for the new Cash for Clunkers program (to buy, not trade-in).

"You don't really need a complicated chart to find a fuel-efficient vehicle at a Honda dealer," said John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. "We hope that this program will help consumers make the move into vehicles that are easier on both their wallets and the environment."

Honda cars that have a combined EPA fuel-economy rating of 22 MPG or more and may be eligible for payments under this program include:

• 2009 Fit - All models
• 2010 Insight - All models
• 2009 Civic - All models
• 2009 Accord - All models except V6 Coupe with manual transmission
Honda light trucks that have a combined EPA fuel-economy rating of 18 MPG or more and may be eligible for payments under this program include:

• 2009 CR-V - All models
• 2009 Element - All models
• 2009 - 2010 Pilot - All models including 2WD and 4WD
• 2009 - 2010 Odyssey - All models
Honda pickup trucks that meet "Large Light-Duty Truck" requirements with 17 MPG combined rating, wheelbase greater than 115 inches and GWVR less than 8,500 lbs. include:

• 2009 Ridgeline - All models
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Toyota Sets Up Cash for Toyota Site

Taking advantage of the 'Cash for Clunkers' program, Toyota has set up a site specifically for pointing out which cars are available from Toyota and Scion, that qualify under the government program.  They list 15 cars, but are careful to point out that certain options will disallow some of those vehicles.


Qualifying Vehicles [1]
Toyota			Scion
Avalon	Matrix	Tacoma	tC
Camry	Prius	Tundra	xB
Corolla	Solara	VENZA	xD
FJ Cruiser	Sienna	Yaris
Highlander	RAV4	4Runner
[1] Vehicles equipped with certain options may not qualify.
You can fill out a form to find local deals (dealerships, really) that are near you. I'm assuming that only the dealers that become certified under the CARS program will be shown here.

I expect other car companies will quickly follow suit with their own sites to 'help' consumers find their way.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Chrysler Renegotiates Contract with GM on Dual Mode Hybrid Engine

It seems Chrysler is trying to opt out of paying up their share for developing the dual mode hybrid engine. GM, Chrysler, and BMW partnered to create the dual-mode hybrid engine which is suitable for their SUVs and trucks. Chrysler used the new hybrid engine in the Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango hybrids, which were subsequently killed off after just two months.

But Chrysler still wants to use the dual-mode hybrid engine in the Dodge Ram 1500 Hybrid next year.

But when they filed for bankruptcy, the company was split into old Chrysler and new Chrysler (Source: GM Looks for Two-Mode Hybrid Payments from Chrysler - PickupTrucks.com News). The new Chrysler was bought by Fiat, but did not bring along many of the old contracts. And the contract with GM for the dual-mode hybrid engine was left behind. Now, Chrysler wants to renegotiate the contract they had with GM.

Chrysler would like to pay just $173,477 to settle the full $531,275 in costs associated with: open receivables, payments for 2008 manufacturing costs, tooling, pre-production transmissions for the Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango Two-Mode Hybrid SUVs (which were killed after only two months of production), and supply agreements.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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JD Powers Predicts Minimal Impact From Cash for Clunkers Program

JD Powers feels the 'Cash for Clunkers' Program will not have a considerable impact on 2009 car sales. Although the program could 'theoretically' increase sales by as much as 500,000, they are predicting actual sales will be 'considerably lower.'

The press release cites limitations to the funding and duration of the program will keep the program from having a significant impact. They also feel the stipulations will be confusing to consumers.

In other words, they feel consumers won't know or won't understand which cars qualify and which won't. Add that to the short term duration and you have little time to educate the consumers.

"It remains to be seen if the passage of Cash for Clunkers program will be enough to draw consumers to showrooms and spark sales, but we remain skeptical," said Jeff Schuster, executive director of global forecasting at J.D. Power and Associates.
While I agree with their sentiments, I would add in the lack of impact on fuel economy increases even if the program was taken full advantage of (500,000 new cars sold).  Given the severe restrictions on fuel economy upgrades, there will be little impact on the US fuel economy. 

In fact, it's more likely to lead to longer term fuel efficiency issues.  The vehicles most likely to be traded in under the program will be trucks and SUVs that are under the mpg limit and are worth less than the $4,500 voucher.  Since a truck owner is most likely to buy a new truck (there's a reason they owned one, after all), and they only need to improve the fuel economy by 2 mpg, the long term impact is minimal.  Add in the new rules setting up fuel economy increases over the next few years, and the trucks that are being sold today will fall way behind the trucks that have to be sold in the next few years.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Social Aspect of the Volt

GM, from the beginning, has beeen very transparent with the development of the Volt.  That's not to say they share all the faults, tweaks, mistakes, set backs, etc... involved.  But they do let you know where it stands right now.  And right now, it's a week ahead of schedule.

As an aside, for anyone who's worked on a massive project like this, that may seem a little scary.  Being a week ahead means you've either put three or four times the amount of work budgeted up to this point, or you've just skipped a bunch of steps, and the mantra has become, they'll fix that in the next stage.

But back to where the Volt stands right now. GM released a video of the chief engineer Andrew Farah driving the first pre-production Volt.




Which is pretty smart, when you think about it. Between GM-Volt.com and other sites (including this one), the Chevy Volt has become one of the most talked about cars in history (Is there any way to measure such a thing?). They've turned it into a social phenomenon. One that surges and recedes, certainly, but is still there.

GM would love it if they really could become "Green Motors" with all the fringe benefits such a title would bestow. But in order to do that, they needed a vehicle, like the Prius, to symbolize that. GM is hoping that initial social group, the one that is so invested in it over the past years, will be the first to buy one. And then spread the word. But to do that, they need to get that initial group, the one that was so high on it right from the start, from start to finish over several years of work.

And they're doing it pretty well. It's releases like this one that allow that social group to stay in touch, stay invested, and stay involved.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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How-To: Compile and Install Kaffeine 0.8.8 in Debian Lenny

Kaffeine is a powerful video player for KDE, using the Xine engine. The latest KDE3 release is 0.8.8, which fixes some bugs and introduces S2 support.

These are a few steps to follow in order to compile Kaffeine on Debian Lenny (which ships by default with 0.8.7):

1. Make sure the sources repositories are enabled
Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file as root (e.g. su; nano /etc/apt/sources.list) and make sure a line which starts with deb-src and looks like the one below is available:

deb-src ftp://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free

Next, update the sources lists:

su
apt-get update

2. Download the source code
Get the source from the official homepage, here, then uncompress it:

tar -xjf kaffeine-0.8.8.tar.bz2

3. Install the needed dependencies
As root, type:

apt-get build-dep kaffeine
apt-get install libcdio-paranoia-dev

The library libcdio-paranoia-dev is needed in order to get rid of the error ERROR: Could not find cdparanoia headers.

This will install build-essential and the development libraries needed to compile Kaffeine.

4. Compile and install Kaffeine
Just follow the usual steps:

./configure
make
make install

The last one as root. If you want to install Kaffeine as local user, use:

./configure --prefix=/home/USER/usr
make
make install

No root required for the last command. This should do it.
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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British GP 09

537


acrylic on paper 6x8"



perfect little sunday for Vettel and Red Bull at Silverstone
and i'm glad not to paint a Brawn for a change...
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Tesla Receives $465 Million in Loans from US DOE

Tesla was approved for low-interest loans from the Dept of Energy to accelerate the production of their affordable, fuel efficient electric vehicles. The loan is part of $24 billion program called the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVMLP).

Ford and Nissan are also receiving loans in the first round of approvals.  GM and Chrysler were excluded early on because of questions about their viability.

$365 Million on Assembly of Model S
Tesla will use $365 million for production engineering and assembly of the Model S, an all-electric family sedan that carries seven people and travels up to 300 miles per charge.

The Model S, according to Tesla, will have a base price in the mid $50K range, although Tesla expects most consumers will pay only $49,900 after a $7,500 US federal tax credit. They expect production to begin in late 2011. The assembly plant will employ about 1,000 workers.

$100 Million on Powertrain Manufacturing Plant in California
The other $100 million will be used in a powertrain manufacturing plant, which will employ about 650 people. The new plant is expected to be located in California, where Tesla is in the final stages of negotiation.

"Tesla will use the ATVM loan precisely the way that Congress intended -- as the capital needed to build sustainable transport," said Tesla CEO and Product Architect Elon Musk. "We are honored that the US government selected Tesla to be among the first companies to participate in this progressive program."


More on the Model S, Roadster, and new showrooms from Tesla press release:
The Model S sedan features exceptional performance, styling and utility, with unrivaled cargo and passenger space. Its floor-mounted powertrain is the culmination of a half-decade of engineering in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, where Tesla developed the Roadster.

The highly acclaimed Roadster is the first production battery electric vehicle to travel more than 200 miles per charge and the first US- and EU-certified Lithium-Ion battery electric vehicle. With an estimated range of 244 miles per charge and zero tailpipe emissions, it’s the first production vehicle to offer supercar performance with a clean conscience.

Tesla has never applied for federal funds for the Roadster, an American sports car that consumes no gasoline whatsoever. Tesla expects the Roadster business unit to be profitable in the third quarter. Privately held Tesla will finance sales and marketing for the Model S through private capital.

Tesla has delivered more than 500 Roadsters to customers. Later this month, Tesla will begin delivering its second-generation Roadster and Roadster Sport, an even higher-performance vehicle.

Teslas do not require routine oil changes or exhaust system work. They have far fewer moving (and breakable) parts than internal combustion engine vehicles. They qualify for federal and state tax credits, rebates, sales tax exemptions, free parking, commuter-lane passes and other perks. The Model S costs roughly $5 to drive 230 miles – a bargain even if gasoline were less than $1 per gallon.

The Model S, which carries its charger onboard, can be recharged from any conventional outlet. Three battery pack choices will offer a range of 160, 230 or 300 miles per charge. Tesla is taking reservations online and at its two showrooms in California.

Tesla will expand its network of showrooms this summer with stores in New York, Chicago, Seattle and Miami. Tesla will open its London showroom June 25, followed by Munich and Monaco. Additional stores will be opened in Washington DC and Toronto.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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New York City Loses Again in Bid to Force Hybrid Taxis

New York City lost again (AP Story) in their battle to revamp the cities taxis into more fuel efficient fleets. U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty sided with the cab companies (once again), stating the city could not interfere with the federal jurisdiction to mandate laws relating to mileage or emissions.

New York City officials, after failing in their bid to mandate hybrid taxis, wanted to put in incentives (pdf) instead. In this case, the new rules would allow hybrid cab owners to charge more for their rentals, while more gas-hungry vehicles would see their rates slowly decrease.


"We do not believe that Congress intended to prohibit local governments from implementing incentive programs ... that encourage the purchase of environmentally friendly taxis. We are exploring our legal options," Michael A. Cardozo, head of the city's law department said in a statement.

The Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, said it applauded the ruling for preventing the city "from imposing drastic financial penalties that would severely punish taxi fleets that operate nonhybrid vehicles."

"We have always preferred to work with the city of New York to adopt a viable plan for a safe, reliable, comfortable, economical and fuel-efficient taxi fleet. We renew that commitment today," it added. (Source: AP Story)
Considering the MTBOT has been the lead plaintiff in disallowing the plans set forth by the city to impose hybrid and more fuel efficient vehicles on the streets of NYC (plus this statement), that last statement seems a little off to me.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Nissan Gets $1.6 Billion in Loans From US Govt

As part of the $25 billion loan program set up to help auto makers retool or build factories to build more fuel efficient vehicles, Nissan announced they were approved, conditionally, to receive $1.6 billion. They will be using the money to modify the plant in Smyrna, Tenn to produce zero-emission vehicles and state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery packs to power them.

The loan is being awarded by the US Dept of Energy (DOE). Ford and Tesla will also receive loans as part of the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVMLP).

"This loan is an investment in America. It will help us put high-quality, affordable zero-emissions vehicles on our roads," said Dominique Thormann, senior vice president, Administration and Finance for NNA. "This project will expand our Smyrna plant and that's great economic news."

GM and Chrysler were not approved for loans early on because the government was questioning their viability.

Construction at Smyrna is scheduled to begin by the end of this year, after an environmental assessment is completed. Production is planned to start in late 2012.

Nissan is promising to offer electric vehicles with a full range of 100 miles in the US and Japan starting in 2010. The first production vehicles will be built in Japan, before production is shifted to the US.

"Nissan is confident that the Smyrna employees have the skill and dedication to take on this critical role in Nissan's future by launching a new form of transportation in the United States," said Susan Brennan, vice president, in charge of manufacturing at Smyrna. "This opens a new chapter in Nissan's 26-year manufacturing history in America."

The modifications of the Smyrna manufacturing plant include a new battery plant and changes in the existing structure for electric-vehicle assembly. When fully operational, the vehicle assembly plant will have the capacity to build 150,000 zero-emissions vehicles a year and the new plant will have an annual capacity of 200,000 batteries.Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Government Set to Loan Billions to Ford, Tesla, and Nissan

Ford will receive $5.9 Billion in low interest loans from the US Govt Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVMLP).  The funding will go towards transforming factories in Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio to produce 13 more fuel efficient models.  Tesla ($465 million) and Nissan ($1.6 billion) were also approved to receive some of the low-interest loans.

From the DOE press release:

Ford Motor Company will receive $5.9 billion in loans through 2011 to help finance numerous engineering advances to traditional internal combustion engines and electrified vehicles. In addition, theses loans will help the company convert two truck plants to the production of cars. Ford will be raising the fuel efficiency of more than a dozen popular models, including the Focus, Escape, Taurus and F-150, representing close to two million new vehicles annually and helping to transform nearly 35,000 employees to green engineering and manufacturing jobs in factories across 5 states: Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio. Ford is driving a major upgrade, leveraging a portfolio of technologies, including the direct injection, smart turbocharging EcoBoost engine, advanced transmissions, and new hybrid technologies.

The facilities that will be impacted by today’s announcement include: Chicago Assembly, Louisville Assembly, Dearborn Assembly, Dearborn Engine, Livonia Transmission, Michigan Assembly, Van Dyke Transmission, Kansas City Assembly, Cleveland Engine, Lima Engine, and Sharonville Transmission.
GM and Chrysler were told their finances have to improve before they can receive any loans from the government's program to loan billions to retool factories in order to make more fuel efficient vehicles. The program was set up by Bush before the TARP program began.

The car companies at the time wanted the loan program, but said the funds would not be available in time to help them survive. Thus, the loans that GM and Chrysler eventually took which allowed them to survive for a few months more before going into bankruptcy.

Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally released this statement on the government loan program:

"Ford Motor Company is proud to be among the first automakers deemed by the government to be among the best companies with the best technologies in American manufacturing and fuel efficiency. This green partnership between Ford and the U.S. government will help accelerate the development of advanced technologies for even better fuel efficiency and emissions. Ford is absolutely committed to fuel economy leadership with every new model we introduce. In fact, we plan to invest nearly $14 billion in advanced technology vehicles in the next seven years. Our partnership with the Department of Energy also will help retool our U.S. plants more quickly to produce fuel efficient vehicles and help meet the new, rigorous fuel-economy requirements."
Ford anticiaptes they will begin repaying the loans back in 2012Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Opera 10 Beta - Preview and Screenshots

The last time I had a look at Opera 10 it was in alpha state, meaning no new features were introduced, and only the rendering engine was replaced with a newer one compared to 9.x series. This first Opera 10 beta comes with various new features.

According to the announcement on the official website, the new rendering engine is 40% faster, the speed dial has been improved, the design was changed compared to 9.64, there is now a resizable search field, and a new browsing mode for slow connections, called Opera Turbo.

The first thing that jumped in my eyes was the new interface, Opera 10 beta using a blue theme, different from the black one used in 9.6x. Here's how it looks:


Opera allows now for tabs to be resized, and previews of the web pages loaded in them are shown in the tab space. Here's a screenshot to make this clearer:


Resizable tabs


Presto, the rendering engine used by Opera, has also been improved, and if we take into account what the official website says, it should be up to 40% faster compared to older versions. The Acid3 score for Opera 10 was maximum, 100/100, while Firefox 3.0 got 72/100 and Google Chrome unstable for Linux got 99/100.


Opera Acid3 Test - 100/100


The location bar (also called search field) can also be resized, leaving more space to the fast search box to the right.

Opera 10 has support for widgets too, just like older versions. Here's a crossword game, running inside Opera:


Crossroad widget running in Opera


As always, Opera provides packages for various Linux distributions, including Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, SuSE or Mandriva.

Opera 10 beta comes with all the additional features its users are already used with: integrated BitTorrent, IRC and email clients, support for widgets, a sidebar which provides access to stuff like bookmarks or even notes. On top of this, Opera is highly configurable, allowing you to configure each and every aspect of it, from keyboard shortcuts to the user agent. Just like Firefox, it comes with an about:config configuration utility.

Opera 10 already looks very promising, and it's just in beta phase. Though closed-source, it always managed to keep its marketshare throughout the years, it provides very good Linux support (really, I don't know many - even open-source - projects who provide installation packages for so many distributions), it comes with Flash by default, and it's very fast at rendering web pages.
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Minirok 2.0 - Minimalist Audio Player for KDE4

Introduction
Written in Python, Minirok is a minimalist audio player which ships with a simple and intuitive interface, which kind of resembles the Amarok 1.4 interface, except all the major features were removed.

The latest version was released on June 1st, and it is the first release for KDE4. If you want the KDE3 version (although it is rather poor when it comes to features), you can download and install release 0.9.2 from the official homepage.

What does it do?
First of all, it plays music. Minirok is very lightweight when it comes to resources and if you need a simple player with basic features for KDE4 you're tired of Amarok or JuK, then probably it's time to give Minirok a try.

Minirok can't compete with a player like Amarok in terms of features, but it definitely is a good player for its category of small, fast and non resource-hungry applications.


Minirok 2.0 - clean and simple

The playlist is simple, resembling the one from Amarok 1.4, and you can choose which fields are to be shown and which not. Available fields are Track, Artist, Album, Title and Length. At the moment Minirok does not provide a way of sorting or saving the playlist, but the last playlist used is loaded automatically when Minirok is restarted.

It even supports Last.fm song submission, but you will need to install and configure lastfmsubmitd, a daemon which runs in the background and can be used by other players too (like MOC for example, which I reviewed here).

Minirok supports global keybindings, it allows songs queuing, random mode, repeat track or playlist, stop playing after a certain track. This release is still the first one in the 2.x series, so several features are still missing. For example the Configure Toolbars dialogue is empty, while adding music is done only via keyboard, by typing the path to the music directory in the drop-down text box on the left.

Update: There was a problem with the play/pause and stop buttons, which were not visible in the environment in which I tried Minirok, Kubuntu 9.04 with KDE 4.2 and all the updates to date. I'll come back with more info on this as soon as I get to try it again. (Thanks go to Adeodato Simó, the Minirok author, for pointing this out for me)


Configuring Minirok


Installation
You should be able to run Minirok easily. After downloading the minirok-2.0.tar.gz package from the homepage, uncompress it and run the minirok.py script, which is already executable. On Ubuntu for example, you may need to install two packages, python-mutagen and python-gst0.10:

sudo apt-get install python-mutagen python-gst0.10

With your user password. Then run python.py by either double-clicking on it or in a Konsole using:

./python.py

Conclusion
If you only want to listen to music and you don't care about advanced features, then give Minirok a try. It's definitely not bloated, it ships with a clean interface integrated into KDE4 and provides the minimum options needed to manipulate the playlist.
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Fire.fm - Firefox Add-on for Last.fm Radio and More

I've recently started to make a post every two or three days (well, except for the period the blog was inactive) in which I review a potential useful Firefox add-on. Today I decided upon Fire.fm, an add-on which will integrate Last.fm in Firefox and will allow you to play music directly from within your browser.

For those of you who are not familiar with Last.fm, it is a music service which allows you to listen to custom radio stations, submit the music you listen to, make friends, talk on forums, create and join groups of listeners and discuss various music topics, and much more. I think its the greatest music service available today, and it's free (well, except for the radio subscription which was recently introduced).


Fire.fm toolbar and integration into Firefox


Fire.fm is a free, BSD-licensed add-on for Firefox . You can download and install it from the Mozilla add-ons page, restart Firefox and grant permission to login into your Last.fm account.

Fire.fm allows you to select which radio station you want to play, it controls the volume, and it also creates a Last.fm toolbar which you can enable or disable, just like the one for StumbleUpon. Fire.fm is customisable and will also create a Tools menu entry, for quick access the all the functions it provides.


Preferences


I warmly recommend Fire.fm to those who listen to Last.fm radio and don't need an audio player (or their client), preferring instead to use the web browser.


The menu entry


Download and Install Fire.fm from the Mozilla add-ons page
Official website
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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Amarok 2.1 Review - New Features, But Still Lagging Behind 1.4

One of the new additions which are noteworthy to mention for Amarok 2.1 is the introduction of the classic playlist (the one from 1.4) and also the playlist editor.


Amarok 2.1 - Changed widgets interface


The playlist can still be a mess, with songs from albums mixed throughout the entire playlist or compilations which are shown separately for each individual artist. Still, there is no keyboard shortcut to search through the playlist (like Alt+E in Amarok 1.4). There is now an Update Collection option under the Tools menu, just like in 1.4, so you won't need to rescan the collection each time you add some new music to it.

The good thing about this release is that users who liked more the older, classic playlist can switch to it now. Besides this, there is also a playlist editor available, which lets you decide which fields are shown and which not:


Playlist Layout Editor



Classic playlist



The interface is more appealing now, and the blue really looks very good. The central widget is better organised now, offering easier access to lyrics or Wikipedia information.


Lyrics and Wikipedia widgets



Amarok 2.1 comes with 7 different internet services, including Jamendo and Magnatune music stores, Last.fm integration and Podcast Directory. The podcast directory integration is really great and useful, and it will fetch large lists of podcasts from various domains. Notice that you'll have to drag the selected podcast in order to add it to the playlist (although good functionality, this should be available in a context menu too when right-clicking the podcast). Also, for me every podcast refused to play, and Amarok issued the error "Too many errors encountered in the playlist. Playback stopped". Adding a large number of podcasts can make it freeze and render it unusable.


Podcast Directory service


The Last.fm integration is very good, and it provides your profiles information directly inside Amarok. You can listen to Last.fm radio, submit the tracks you are playing, see neighbours and friends (and play their personal radio), love and skip tracks.


Last.fm inside Amarok


I noticed Amarok won't fetch covers from local folders, and the Amazon cover fetching seems to be pretty poor. Also, I have albums with names which go like Dark Side of the Moon [Twentieth Anniversary Edition] or Let There Be Rock [2003 Remaster] and the covers are not retrieved for those ones. This is where local cover fetching would be very useful, just like in 1.4.

Bottom up, Amarok still lacks several major features, not to mention usability, but it's obvious that 2.1 has made some progresses compared to 2.0. There is no equalizer, many bugs, the playlist can get a little messy. As most of Amarok's fans know by now, Amarok 2.x can't be compared with 1.4 in terms of features yet, but (hopefully) these will be implemented. It's just that it takes way too much time.
Source URL: http://ashesgarrett.blogspot.com/2009/06/
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