Rahim Virani's Blog

Hi Everyone,

Thought many linux users (particularly FC 12 users) would find this post usefull seeing as the RPMs for dropbox have been last updated to Fedora Core 10 and dont work in the latest release.  I have been a long time Debian/Ubuntu user and havent looked to seriously at Fedora or Redhat since about version 5.1 when I used to build firewalls on it when I was about 16-17.  Please comment particularly on my usage of the ‘yum’ package manager if there are any ques I have missed or any inefficiencies.

This tough guide will help you install Dropbox on Fedora Core 12,  I recommend that you have some sort of broad-band connection because you will be downloading a few hundred MB of development tools and libraries.

#Install Development tools (This part takes a while)

yum groupinstall Development Tools 

yum install nautilus-devel

yum install libnotify-devel

yum install python-docutils

#Create and CD to the build directory

mkdir /var/src

cd /var/src

#Download the source for dropbox

wget https://www.dropbox.com/download?dl=packages/nautilus-dropbox-0.6.1.tar.bz2

#Untar the source file

tar -xjpvf nautilus-dropbox-0.6.1.tar.bz2

#cd to the source directory

cd nautilus-dropbox-0.6.1.tar.bz2

#run the configure script

./configure

#Run the make script to build the software

make

#Run the install script to install the software

make install

Now logout and log back in again.

Navigate to the top gnome panel, and click on “Applications”.  You should see under “Applications –> Internet” a menu item called “Dropbox”

click on “Dropbox”

Then click “OK”

The installer will download a few things and them prompt you about whether or not you have an account etc.

Voila! Dropbox is installed on Fedora Core 12!

I was looking  for a light weight editor with a compile button and an output pane on the bottom (for compile errors and console output).  While I am quite aware this is what Eclipse will give me, I am also startlingly aware that running Eclipse on a netback is not advisable.

Furthermore I have always been a fan of light-weight software.  I like also simple, single-task oriented software, it helps me to focus on the task at hand.

Wanting a simple lightweight alternative to the heavy-weight eclipse combined with being an advocate of mono-task oriented, minimalistic software there were a few alternatives I tried:

tide – OK but I don’t want the silly overhead of project files and the like, I find them useless for small projects and school assignments, they just seem to get in the way.

drJava – Good IDE but the problem is its very slow, I like that its just a simple .jar file but I wanted something a little more lightweight and simple.

Geany – Geany is good, available for OS X (via macports), Linux (I ran mine on ubuntu) and Windows (on my work laptop) I find this IDE to be the best fit for what I wanted.

OS X – I found on OS X it took a long time to build,  the process is as easy as on windows or linux.  The installation consists of three steps:

1.  Install macports
2.  As root (’sudo bash’ from a terminal)
3.  port selfupdate && port install geany

Despite completing these three steps I was unable to get geany to work however I was on an upgraded “Snow Leopard” machine,  There are many reports of this working however it does not seem to work out of the box on snow leopard.

What IDE do you use?  can you suggest other alternatives out there?  What are your experiences?

With a new semester on the horizon perhaps this post is a little early but still very good to keep in mind.  As it is with most courses you will take, there is a large majority of work that you will complete either done individually or as some type of group assignment (which I  am never a fan of).  As I have done a lot of both there seems to be a method that I use to organize myself and maintain maximum productivity, it works really well.  Even if you are a procrastinator this method of organizing your work into Power Hours works!

Power hours are a method of organizing yourself by quantifying your work and setting goals.  This works for any type of work that has what we call in project management speak “deliverables”.

The first part of your hour you should spend with a pen and paper (or a todo-list) on your computer.  Take 5 minutes and plan what tasks you would like to do in the next 45 minutes of work ahead of you.  Be specific, for example: “Record Citations of paper in MLA style” or “Complete outline for powerpoint presentation.”  These goals that you set, these deliverables must be exactly that.  They must be deliverable, they have a quantifiable finish, you will know when you have finished them.  Be sure to schedule what you think you can do in 45 minutes not what superman can do in 45 minutes.  As you work in powe r hours you will learn to set goals that are more accurate and suited to your productivity strengths and weaknesses.  Always be reasonable but challenge yourself at the same time.

If you are good at math you will realize that the time I have accounted for is only 50 minutes so far, and the last time you checked there were 60 minutes in an hour.  That leaves, 10 minutes.  So you are probably wondering what to do with your 10 minutes.  The answer is simple: Take a break.  Now what I mean by taking a break is do something different.  Go for a quick walk outside.  Play a video game.  Do something that does not involve the same motions and enviroment that you have been working in.  If you are doing your work on a computer, for the next 10 minutes dont look at any type of electronic display, that includes your TV, cell phone, PSP device, iPod etc….  You may even want to close your eyes for a few minutes.  If you have not been staring at a computer screen then go ahead, play that game for 10 minutes, reward yourself for the next 10 minutes, you earned it (hopefully).  When taking a break its good to get a change of scene.  I always like doing something totally different like calling a friend But dont get or going for a walk.  But don’t get distracted, the next thing you will have to do is start all over again.

Working in Power hours:
1.  5 mins – Make a list of the goals or deliverables to acheive in the next 45 minutes.
2.  45 mins – Focus, Work like mad to get all the things on your list done before the 45 minutes is up.
3. 10 mins – Take a break, relax, you earned it.  Do something different.

Let me know how power hours work for you, I have used power hours in the past to complete development projects (computer programming), write papers, work on group projects.   You can also use them outside of school to complete project related work.  As long as you can break your larger tasks and projects down to deliverables then.

This past semester I had to write a term paper, while I am used end of term projects (common in applied degrees such as the B.Tech) I have never really had to take time to sit and write a full-on term paper.  I have a few friends both in graduate and under-graduate studies primarily in the Arts that can push out papers in reletivly little time (3 hours or less).

Are there any of you that have experienced this?  Do you have any methodologies that would help write better more effective and efficient term papers?  Please do comment, my last term paper was roughly 24 hours or of work and I am sure that it didn’t have to be.

Recently after writing my last post I noticed that in fact Lifehacker.com had published a review of the top five mind mapping applications.

While FreeMind is great I used XMind, you will have to create an account to sign in and download.  It appears as though XMind is developed on the Eclipse platform (RCP).  I found the interface easy to use and the layout more robust than FreeMind, however the text editing is quite cumbersome, when brainstorming I also wanted to trap my citations and the only usable way to do it is to add a Note to a leaf.  It is cumbersome but its the best I have found so far.

Another tool however was suggested to me called “MindMiester” and as I see it is primarily web-based but using Google Gears, you can work on your mind-maps offline and have them sync the next time you are online.  I think I will be trying out this tool next.

Elizabeth, commented on using NovaMind.  Has anyone tried this?

What do you use?

The pen and paper are great but…

I have always been a fan of pen and paper, these past weeks I was assigned an essay in my English class. As I read through the text it suggested using index cards for my research and then using them again to organize my thoughts in order to form an outline for my essay.

Almost all post-secondary students buy laptops and use them for school, in fact in an article I just read an article how 99.9% of freshmen (an american term that means those entering post-secndary) have laptops.  Seeing as I just bought myself for (for grad school) a Toshiba Satellite E100 model laptop, I wanted of course to find a good way of brainstorming that would easily allow me to from my research, make an outline.

What do I need?

Being the type of computer user and having an undergraduate degree in Information Technology (BTech.IT) I am always looking out for better ways to compute, especially software tools that are simple and that do the trick.  So I set out to find a tool that met the following requirements.

• Runs on any kind of computer operating system (Windows, OS X, Linux) – otherwise known by the geeks as cross-platform.
• Organize and re-organize my thoughts in order to outline my essay.
• Llink to other programs and web-pages.
• Simple to use

Well I found one that does this for me. Its called “Freemind” its available here.  Unfortunately it is quite cumbersome as a note taker but it provides sufficient outlining capabilities.

What do you use?

What software tools do you use to aide in research and paper writing?  How do you use your computer to aide in organizing your thoughts?

I thought of a name for this blog, I’ve thought of a few, I’ve even thought of translating names from latin.  Regardless, I dont yet have a name, I suppose I will find one soon. I hope to blog here on many matters concerning the things that I am involved in, Technology, Education, Philosophy, History, Theology to name a few.

I’m thankful for the opportunity to blog by association with Kwantlen, I have been a student at Kwantlen since 2003 and have completed my Bachelor’s Degree of Technology in Information Technology (BTech(IT)) and am currently just under half-way through my Bachelor of Arts (Double Minor in History and Philosophy).  I have also recently been accepted into the Masters of Science in Information Systems Program at Athabasca University.

I hope you find the content I post fun and enjoyable to read, on occasion I may post assignements that interested me and hope that many of you will comment and continue the discourse.

Always feel free to comment and drop me a line.

Much Thanks,