Writing Python with PSPad

PSPad is a great editor for programmers. Instead of using a dedicated Python IDE, PSPad can be tweaked to compile and run scripts directly. Here’s how: -

• Go to Settings -> Highlighters Settings
• Select “Python” in the left hand pane (if its not selected already)
• Select the “Compiler” tab
• In the “compiler” text box, enter or browse to the location of the Python compiler (e.g. C:\Program Files\Python26\python.exe)
• In the “parameters” text box, enter “%File%” (note the double quotes)
• Put a tick box in the “Capture Program Output Window” option
• In the “LOG parser” text box, enter *file %F *line %L*

Once this is set up correctly, you will be able to run .py files directly from PSPad by going to File -> Compile or using the shortcut (Ctrl+F9).

Useful Plugins for Gimp

Gimp is the image editing tool for Linux. To install additional plugins such as drop shadow etc, the easiest way is to install gimp-plugin-registry.

This can be done using the Ubuntu packages: -

sudo apt-get install gimp-plugin-registry

USB in VirtualBox

Here are the steps required to get USB working on a Linux host (tested with VirtualBox 2.1.4)

1. Create a group usbusers and put yourself in it.

sudo addgroup usbusers
usermod -a -G usbusers andy

2. Note down the vendor and id numbers for the USB devices that you want to enable after running the following command: -

VBoxManage list usbhost

3. In VirtuaBox’s USB section add both of these devices, making sure you have the vendor and id numbers correct.

4. Add the following lines in /etc/fstab (you can get the ID of the usbusers group by looking in /etc/group) : -

# usbusers is the USB group (id 1001)
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=1001,devmode=664 0 0

5. A reboot is required.

Combining PDF Files

Combining PDF files in Linux is ridiculously easy – its just a matter of installing the PDF Toolkit package (pdftk) and then running the following command: -

pdftk file1.pdf file2.pdf file3.pdf cat output newfile.pdf

Firefox Backspace Button

For some reason, by default in Ubuntu, pressing the “backspace” key in Firefox doesn’t go back. Fortunately this is easy to fix: -

Open your firefox browser and type the following code into the address bar:

about:config

After that in the filter type:

browser.backspace_action

and change it’s value to “0″.

Linux Media Centres

I’m toying with the idea of creating a Media Centre PC running Linux. Here are the main contendors for Linux Media Centres that I can find.

• Boxee
• MythTV
• Freevo
• Elisa
• Geexbox
• Linuxmce

DeltaCopy – rsync for Windows

DeltaCopy is a free piece of software for Windows that allows you to interface with other computers running rsync. Basically, it is a “Windows Friiendly” wrapper around rsync. It is fairly easy to use, and also allows you to run rsync from the command line without having to install CygWin.

Multi-Platform Applications

CrossPlatformApplications.org is a great little website that gives a summary of software that runs on a combination of Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Great for if you have different PC’s running different OS’s and want to use the same software.

Totally Free Burner

I’ve just found a great small new free piece of software : Totally Free Burner. This software burns audio, video, data, and ISO CDs and DVDs in just a few clicks. Great if you don’t need the bloat of Nero or Roxio etc.