Bollywood Bloopers in movies....

Bollywood Bloopers in movies....

We've seen heroes heal instantly after being shot by a volley of bullets with no sign of injury in the next scene. Over the years we've come across some major blunders like Aamir Khan playing cricket in the movie Lagaan (set in the year 1892) in the 6 ball per over format, the rule however was introduced only around the year 1982-83!

Did you notice these Bollywood bloopers in movies? I have found some ....

In the blockbuster movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum, Amitabh Bachchan uses a Nokia Communicator phone which was launched somewhere around 1996-1998. This scene is set ten years ago in this 2001 movie, which makes it 1991! Pretty amazing how he laid his hands on this phone years before it was launched!

In the movie '3 Idiots', there’s a scene where Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi) is hospitalised and Aamir Khan uses an Airtel Data Card to set up a video chat with Farhan Qureshi (R. Madhavan). The movie was made in 2009 and according to the script the scene should have been set 10 years ago (since Chatur makes a 10 year challenge) when Airtel did not even sell data cards!

Again, in 3 Idiots when Farhan and Raju threaten to drop Mr.Chanchad's remain down the drain, they drop the pot's cap in the commode but when they hand the pot back to the real Ranchoddas, the cap is still on!

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag: The movie is set in the 1950s but when Milkha visits Pakistan for the competition he rides a 2012 model Royal Enfield.

Oops, the make-up man probably went missing!

Italy may be a lot of things, but Hungary! Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam substituted Hungary’s capital Budapest as Italy - an entire country is passed off as another. The last sequence of the love triangle starring Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was filmed on the famous Szechenyi Chain Bridge above River Danube, which is certainly not in Italy.

Nobody knows how old Aamir Khan was in Ghulam. The film tells us that Aamir's father, played by Dalip Tahil, betrayed his colleagues during the freedom struggle. Considering that the film was set in contemporary times and released in 1998, Aamir should have been at least 55-years-old!

In the movie ‘Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyon’, at the beginning of the Global Anti-Terrorist Meeting being held in London in 2002, a passionate Amitabh Bachchan tells the American representative that when the World Trade Centre was attacked, the US invaded Afghanistan and did not even spare Iraq. Mr Bachchan was quite a soothsayer, since the US didn't invade Iraq until March 2003!

In Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Aishawarya Rai was mugged and shot in the neck, but in the very next scene in the hospital, that neck heals miraculously and she only has a bandaged arm!

In the 2004 movie ‘Deewar’ Amitabh Bachchan is shown to be in a Pakistan jail for close to 33 years. His biological son Akshaye Khanna is only 28 years old! There’s definitely something Amitabh Bachchan doesn’t know here.

The climax of the movie ‘Diwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’ takes place at a station named 'Apta'. You can find the board in a few shots during the last 10 minutes of the film. 'Apta' is a station near Mumbai and it is 1700 km away from Punjab where the story is based out of.

In the movie Sholay, Thakur's house has no electricity since there is no power connection in the village. Then how do they have an overhead tank which needs a motor to pump the water up into the tank?

In the Tamil movie, Vijaykanth (the hero) uses Windows Media Player to track down terrorists!

And this one from Jai Ho!

Things you shouldn’t do when pretending to be on a call.

In the movie Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Shah Rukh Khan gets into the Indian Army after he turns 25 while the maximum age to join the Indian Army is 25 years.

Buyer's guide for Wi-Fi router

Before stepping out to buy a Wi-Fi router, there are a few things that you need to know...

*Do you need an ADSL router?
If your broadband connection is going to be from BSNL or MTNL, you will need an ADSL router which allows the telephone line to be used for internet browsing and voice calls at the same time. These routers come with an RJ11 port into which you can connect your phone cable. For use within the confines of a single room you will be well-served by the ADSL Wi-Fi routers that come from the service provider at a nominal fee. If you want more out of your router, read on... 

*Single or Dual band?
Single band Wi-Fi routers transmit data in the 2.4GHz range, while simultaneous dual band routers operate at 2.4GHz as well as 5GHz. While single-band routers are adequate for most users, those living in highly-populated areas might face signal interference from wireless routers in the vicinity - as well as from other devices such as microwave ovens and cordless phones that also operate in the 2.4GHz band. In such cases, a dual band router is recommended. It should be noted that while the 5GHz band is less used, its signals don't travel as well when compared to 2.4GHz. So if you're operating at 5GHz, you would have to stay closer to the router for better fidelity.

Internal or external antenna? In case you want Wi-Fi access in other rooms - through walls or glass partitions - opt for a router with one or more external antennas.

*Which devices?
Almost all tablets and phones specify if the device is Wi-Fi compliant, with no mention of whether they support just 2.4GHz signals or also 5GHz. For example, the Apple iPhone 4S, iPod touch, Blackberry Curve 9360, and Amazon Kindle support 2.4GHz only. On the other hand, the iPad, iPhone 5, Samsung Series 7 Slate and Motorola Xoom can work on the 5GHz band as well. So before spending extra on a dual-band router, check if your devices are equipped to handle 5GHz signals. 

*Do I need 802.11n?
This is the current standard in wireless networking. If you are purchasing a new router—single or dual band—go with an 802.11n router.

*What type of security?
WPA2 is the highest level of security in routers and is the recommended standard.

*Number of ports?
Most routers come with up to four Ethernet ports to connect PCs for shared internet access. The addition of USB ports means you can also connect external storage or a printer to the router, to be shared by devices on the network.

*What to buy?
Netgear, Cisco, D-Link Systems and Linksys are some popular manufacturers of Wi-Fi routers. Buying from any of these brands will more often than not guarantee good quality. Recommendations for ADSL: D-Link DSL-2750 U (Rs 2,700), Belkin N150 (Rs 2,400), Asus DSL-N 10E (Rs 2,100), Asus DSL-N 55U Dual Band (Rs 11,000). Recommendations for non-ADSL: Cisco Linksys E900 or E1200 (Rs 2,500-2,900), Cisco Linksys EA2700 or EA3500 Dual Band (Rs 8,300-10 ,500), Asus RT-N 56U (Rs 8,500), Netgear N600 or N900 Wireless Dual Band (Rs 10,000-14,000). 

Funny Movie Titles in Bhojpuri... .

Everything Sounds Better in Bhojpuri...

      Okay. It now stands undisputed. Bhojpuri makes everything sound fun(ny). Yes. Even a blood-fest like Kill Bill seems like a laugh riot when in the company of Minimal Bollywood Posters, who put up these on their official Facebook page. There I was thinking Phatphatiya Pe Bhootwa (Ghost Rider, in Bhojpuri) was the funniest poster I had ever seen, but these take not just the cake but the entire bakery shop.

1. When Harry Met Sally: That cult rom-com starring the adorable Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, which can make even the most hardcore mush-hater shed a tiny tear of joy.

2. Inception: That 'mind'-boggling world of dreams inside dreams inside dreams inside dreams. For those of you who didn't understand the profound world that is this film, pray that you can lay our hands on a Bhojpuri-dubbed version. You may not understand it any better in Bhojpuri, but at least the film will be much more enjoyable this time.

3. Man of Steel: Did you leave theatres thinking that this film lacked..umm.. something? We did too. And we think, this was it. Lolmax at 'Ganja rahela bigdal sahejada' (The bald man is a spoiled prince). Gold!

4. Scream: Remember screaming in horror at the omnipresent ghost in Scream? Yeah. As the guys at MBP put it, it was because: 'Taake rahela toke saanjh savere' (The big bad ghost stares at you day and night).

Just in case you were confused about who was peeping. So much clarity in these posters. So much.

5. Silence of the Lambs: Did this film send shivers down your spine? Did you smother your screams whenever Jodie Foster came close to Anthony Hopkins? Now take a look at the film's Bhojpuri poster. This film will never be the same again.

6. Avatar: Ladies and gentlemen. Boys and girls. Jake Sully would have you all know that his heart beats for the blue doll (neeli gudiya). Enough said. Saare bolo Pandora Maiyya ki jai.

7. Catch Me If You Can: Another classic which you will never be able to watch with a straight face again. Tom plays Tom and Leo plays Jerry according to MBP. Slow clap for these chaps, please.

8. Hangover: Aaah. They missed the mark here. Maybe if the film had been a little less funny, the poster would have seemed funnier. Oh well. Doesn't matter.

9. Sex and the City: Jaawani maare tees ( Thirty yet flirty. Okay there can be no literal translation of this). The poster is definitely much more fun than the film was!

10. Taken: 'O sasuraa, bitiya le lai. Liam Neesonwa ab unki le lai.'  SOMEONE GIVE THESE GUYS THE OSCARS. 

11. Kill Bill: The best for the last. Uma bhauji, if the movie hadn't done it yet, you've now been immortalized forever. Maar Billwa ke bhauji, maaaaar! 

15 Things To Do After Installing Fedora

The preference for GNOME 3 and the non-requirement for KDE is the reason for primarily selecting the Xfce desktop when trying out new distros. Xfce is ideal when productivity is on top priority, however, not at the expense of functionality.

Here are 15 things you should do to get the best out of Fedora 20 post its installation -

1. Update Fedora – The first important thing to do would be to get the system updated and this requires no more than a single command mentioned below -
 

$ sudo yum update

The download size is going to be important based on the number of updates are present at the time of doing it.

2. Getting a better browser - Firefox + Chrome - Fedora 20 Xfce comes with the Midori. However, it’s quite bulky on high profile sites like youtube.com and crashes frequently. It would be great to get a heavy weight browser.

3. Installing Flash player - Adhering to the Fedora free software principles, there is no flash player. Firstly, you require setting up the yum repository for Adobe flash player, and then install the flash plugin package. The repository setup becomes a lot easier through an rpm provided by Adobe. You can setup the Adobe repository and download the rpm from the link here- http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/

4. Selecting the Greybird theme and a splash screen - Fedora Xfce has the Adwaita theme when it boots initially, but since the Shimmer GreyBird theme is present in the theme list there is no reason to keep away from it. This is among the most professional and elegant looking gtk theme. Let’s take a look at the steps below -

Go to Settings > Appearance and select the Greybird theme.
Go to Settings > Window Manager : Style tab and select Greybird from the list of themes.
Setting a startup splash window
Go to Settings > Session and Startup : Splash tab and select "Simple" from the list. This will show a splash window with status when you load from login screen to desktop. Great to have an indicator.

Tweaking the mouse

Go to Settings > Mouse and Touchpad : Behavior tab and increase Double click time to somewhere around 760 ms. This will make it comfortable when maximize windows by double clicking their title area.

Removing the lower panel

It takes up a lot of space otherwise docks will not fit well into speed+efficiency oriented desktop environments like Xfce. Right click the panel and go to Panel > Panel Preferences, select Panel 2 and click the "-" button.

Giving the Terminal some transparency

The terminal application is known as "xfce4-terminal" supporting transparency. Open a terminal, click Edit > Preferences, go to Appearances tab and in the background section choose Transparent background and set Transparency to 0.70.

5. Optimising fonts and rendering - Here's how to get gorgeous looking fonts on Ubuntu Linux:

1. Create a file named .fonts.conf inside the home directory and fill it with the font configuration found here https://gist.github.com/silv3rm00n/5599072

2. Go to Settings > Appearances and set the font size to 9.
Reduce the font size of the Terminal to 10pt.

3. Download all varieties of Droid and Noto fonts from the Google Fonts store and save them to the directory "/usr/share/fonts/". That's how you install fonts on a linux system.

4. Go to "Applications > Settings > Appearance" : Fonts tab, and enable anti-aliasing with hinting level Medium and subpixel order of RGB.

5. Jump off and login back and your fonts should now have a better appearance.
Okay, the word better is much about perspective, but I could see a huge improvement on LCDs atleast as far as readability and looks are concerned.

6. Installing some extra tools – You can see below a bunch of command line tools that you can install for convenience.
$ sudo yum install htop wget lynx powertop dconf-editor lm_sensors

7. Installing the Gnome System Monitor- The default Xfce Task Manager enlists the processes quite well, however the gui is not that attractive like Gnome System Monitor. So you can get-
$ sudo yum install gnome-system-monitor
You can launch it from Application Menu > System > System Monitor.

8. Getting an Office suite and graphics app - There is not any office suite installed by default so it’s best to get LibreOffice.
$ sudo yum install libreoffice
You may want to install gimp as well for graphics work by using the command below -
$ sudo yum install gimp
9. Installing Skype - Hangouts are more preferred, however skype is useful at times at least for the time being. You can get skype from the following url. You can opt Fedora from the distro list and the rpm file will begin to download.
http://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-computer/
You can also open this url and begin the download directly
http://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-linux/downloading/?type=fedora32
Or here is the direct link to the rpm file.
$ wget http://download.skype.com/linux/skype-4.2.0.11-fedora.i586.rpm

Install the rpm file with yum.
$ sudo yum install skype-4.2.0.11-fedora.i586.rpm

10. Speeding up system menus – You can make a file named .gtkrc-2.0 in your home directory and put in the following magical lines in it
gtk-menu-popup-delay = 0
gtk-menu-popdown-delay = 0
gtk-menu-bar-popup-delay = 0
gtk-enable-animations = 0
gtk-timeout-expand = 10
Saving the file, closing it, logout and login back. Now the system menus like the Application Menu on top left should be blazing fast.

11. Disconnecting mouse scroller from workspace- The mouse scroll on the desktop changes workspace and can be quite annoying if you are reading a webpage and scrolling up and down. It is best to switch it off and the reason to mention it here is, how hidden the place to configure it is.

Go to Settings > Window Manager Tweaks : Workspaces tab
Uncheck the option named "Use the mouse wheel on the desktop to switch workspaces".

12. Getting a better wallpaper- There is just one blue colored wallpaper which is quite plain. Distros including Mint and Elementary come with great wallpapers.

To extract the deb files use the ar and tar commands
$ ar -vx mint-backgrounds-petra_1.4_all.deb
This would make 3 files, namely debian-binary, control.tar.gz, data.tar.gz
The package contents are in the data.tar.gz file, so untar them.
$ tar -xzvf data.tar.gz
Now browse the directory and find the wallpapers.
Putting the wallpapers in the directory '/usr/share/backgrounds/xfce/'
Then selecting them from Desktop Settings on right click menu on the desktop.

13. Setting up rpmfusion repository- The fedora repositories do not have non-free or other proprietory software and you require third party repositories like rpmfusion to fully load your system. Nvidia graphics drivers, various multimedia codecs and players are available through rpmfusion. To view what else is there, go to Yum Extender and view the repository contents.

Run the following command to enable both free and non-free rpmfusion repositories in a single shot

su -c 'yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm'

 
It would install two packages named rpmfusion-free-release and rpmfusion-nonfree-release that setup the correct rpmfusion repositories for your fedora system.

14. Installing VLC player -
Vlc is a great cross platform media player that can play many video formats minus the need for installing codecs separately. It comes from the rpmfusion repositories we have already setup in the previous step.
$ sudo yum install vlcOnce installed you can see the launcher in Applications Menu > Multimedia

15. Installing Dropbox- You can download the correct Fedora rpm from the dropbox site...
https://www.dropbox.com/install?os=lnx
Install the rpm file using yum
$ sudo yum install nautilus-dropbox-1.6.0-1.fedora.x86_64.rpm
Once the installation is complete, you can launch it from Applications Menu > Internet > Dropbox and it will start to download the actual installation files. Once the installation is completed you can launch it and setup your account details to start syncing files.

3 precautions that you should take on social media

In 2010, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, predicted that "every young person one day will be entitled automatically to change his or her name on reaching adulthood in order to disown youthful hijinks stored on their friends' social media sites".

Indeed, if we take time to research ourselves on the internet, most of us will be surprised by how much personal information we've posted online. Our Facebook posts disclose who our friends are, what we 'Like', our relationship status; our tweets broadcast our opinions; the photos we are tagged in reveal what we've done, who we've done it with; our Instagram and Flickr photos provide an insight into the type of people we are; our Foursquare account divulges our favourite locations and hangouts, where we went on holidays; our LinkedIn profiles display our professional history.

All this data-dubbed as our digital footprint-could be taken out of context; be investigated by potential employers; mined by marketing firms; could cause problems at the time of prospective marriage alliances, or during college admissions, or even be used by cyber criminals for identity theft.

But all is not lost yet; and while it might seem like an extremely time-consuming chore, it makes sense for you to..

1) Manage your digital footprint

First, make a list of all social networking sites, online services, and smartphone apps where you have an account. Google your full name (within quotes) and your e-mail address to find accounts you might have forgotten about.

Systematically, start closing the accounts and unsubscribing yourself from the services that you do not use any more. Try websites like AccountKiller.com, DeleteYourAccount.com and JustDelete.me for quick links and how-tos.

When it comes to your social networks, make sure your posts and photos are not freely available to the public.

In Facebook, click on the 'lock' icon in the top right corner of the blue bar and change the settings to private, or share them only with close friends. Importantly, also disable the setting that lets search engines link to your timeline.

In Twitter, under Settings > Security and Privacy, choose the option Do not allow anyone to tag me in photos. Check the Protect my Tweets box so only people you approve can see them. Similarly, uncheck the Add a location to my Tweets box. Also, click the Delete all location information button to erase geo-tags from past tweets. Additionally, uncheck the Discoverability box that lets people find you by your e-mail address.

Delete tweets, updates, blog posts, photos that could be misunderstood or taken out of context... Monitor comments made by others in your networks. More importantly, be careful about whom you befriend.

After you sanitize your digital footprint, exercise full caution when making new blog posts, tweets, and picture posts. Request friends not to tag you in the photos that they post online.



2) Stop websites from tracking you

It's true, they're watching you. Every time you surf the web — even in the privacy of your home — your actions are constantly being tracked. For instance, if you have signed-in to your Google or Microsoft account, your searches are monitored by Google Search and Bing to serve you tailor-made results. If you are 'window shopping' online, the websites you visit leave cookies on your PC, which are used to serve you advertisements throughout your browsing session. Similarly, Facebook recently announced that it would be tracking user's browsing habits.

To avoid being tracked:

Sign out of all your accounts before browsing websites, or using search engines. Uninstall search tool bars that you might have installed. Check the extensions that your browser is running (refer to the browser Help section to know more about extensions), and disable the ones that you don't recognize.

Try the DuckDuckGo.com search engine that doesn't track your activity.

Most browsers — Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari — have a 'do not track' option (found under Settings) that requests websites not to track your online activities. But as it stands, this request might either be honoured, or completely ignored. Still, it makes sense to always use this option when surfing the web.

Install the DoNotTrackMe browser addon (www.abine.com) that's available for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari — and even as an app for Android and iOS. This software blocks ad networks, social networks, and data-collection companies from tracking your browsing. It also protects your email address, phone, and credit card from being abused by companies on the web and on your mobile device.

Install and run CCleaner (www.piriform. com) to clear temporary files, cookies, browsing, download and form history to protect your privacy, and make your computer faster and secure.

Importantly, be careful when installing free software you might have downloaded from the internet. Most of these include 'adware', which are third-party tracking tools, that can be quite hard to uninstall unless you know what you're looking for.

3) Useful browser extensions

Disconnect: Blocks trackers from popular sites (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari) HTTPS

Everywhere: Redirects to secure (HTTPS) versions of sites where possible (Chrome, Firefox)

Adblock Plus: Blocks intrusive ads (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari)

10 Popular FTP Clients That You Can Use!

       FTP, which stands for File Transfer Protocol, has been a mainstay on the internet for quite some time now. FTP Clients are used by many for various purposes, including document sharing, photo sharing etc. If you want to choose a client for you, here are 10 of the best!

 
1. FileZilla

This is an open source free FTP solution that is available for both server and client. It is distributed for free under the GNU General Public License.

2. SmartFTP

This is an FTP, WebDAV, S3,SFTP, SSH, terminal client that allows file transfer between server and local computers.

3. FireFTP

This is a cross platform, secure and free FTP/SFTP client that is meant for the Mozilla Firefox internet browser.

4. WinSCP 5.5

The new version of WinSCP is easier to use and has a change in the looks.

5. Cyberduck

This is an SFTP, Libre FTP, S3, WebDAV and OpenStack Swift browser for Windows and Mac platforms.

6. FlashFXP

This one can be used for server to server ftp transfers, uploading and downloading photos, documents, videos, music and other things.

7. CuteFTP 9

This is the newest version of the CuteFTP client that has been released. It has improvements in the performance department.

8. WS_FTP

Security, ease of use, compliance, automation and good security features is what sets WS_FTP sets itself apart from the competition.

9. GoFTP

This is a free FTP client for Windows that increases the connection speeds between remote FTP server and your computer by as much as 300 per cent.

10. CoffeeCup

This one came up from a real world coffee shop and is used by many all over the world.

Top Resources To Build Your Own Operating System...!!!

Give it a try. Who knows, you could be the next big startup in Silicon Valley waiting to take over the world..!       As a programmer, building your own operating system will definitely be a tempting proposition. It takes in depth understanding of computers and you have to be a powerhouse coder. Here some of the resources that will help in your endeavour. 1. How to Make a Computer Operating System Let's start with a simple Wikihow on making your own computer operating system before we move on to the more complex stuff. 2. Your First Kernel Module This lesson teaches you to write and load a simple kernel module. This is what allows you to write standalone kernel code. 3. Writing Your Own Loadable Kernel Module An operating system is built on a kernel. For example, Android is based on the Linux kernel. Learning to build you own kernel is an imperative for building your own OS. 4. The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide This book is a complete guide on writing your own loadable kernel module. The book is available in two versions, one for Linux 2.4 and the other for Linux 2.6. 5. Writing A Kernel in C As the name suggests, this book teaches you how to write a kernel in the C Programming language. According to the book's introduction, the process is a matter of getting some details right. 6. How to write a simple operating system Here you will learn to write a simple computer operating system on the x86 assembly language. It will explain various aspects like the fundamentals of the PC boot process, assembly language and other important aspects of an operating system. 7. A Simple guide to building your own Linux Kernel Do you want to build your own Linux kernel? This is aimed at teaching complete newcomers how to develop their own Linux kernel. Try your hand at it and find the Torvalds in you! 8. Writing A Simple Operating System — from Scratch This is a free ebook that will teach you how to develop your own operating system right from the scratch. It covers computer architecture, boot programming, writing and loading your own kernel and many other aspects of the process. 9. Onyxkernel This is a work in progress right now but you can still learn a lot from this resource. You can learn how to make a simple operating system through this resource. 10. Raspberry Pi Kernel development This is a blog that deals with low-level embedded programming concepts. You can learn how to develop a Raspberry Pi kernel through this. 11. Building a Simple Raspberry Pi OS This is a summer course from the University of Cambridge on building your very own Raspberry Pi operating system.

Top Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 14.04/13.10/13.04/12.10

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and  its official flavours have been released a couple of days before. In this brief how-to, let us discuss how we can enhance Ubuntu 14.04 and other older versions further for day to day activities. This post we will share some interesting insights and ideas about what you can and should do after a successful installation of Ubuntu.

1. Update System

    Before proceeding to upgrade, the first and important thing to do is update/upgrade software repositories and make sure your systems contains latest versions of all software.

sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get upgrade

2. Configure And Tweak Ubuntu

2.1 Disable Unity Dash Online Search feature

       Whenever, you start typing in Unity Dash to search for an application or a file in your computer, your search terms will be automatically sent to third parties such as Amazon, and the third parties will display the relevant results (mostly ads) depending upon your search terms. If you don’t like this feature and feel this is really annoying to you, you can disable it.

2.2 Ubuntu Tweak

      Ubuntu Tweak is a must have application for Ubuntu and it’s derivatives. It is an application to configure Ubuntu easier for everyone. It provides many useful desktop and system options that the default desktop environment doesn’t provide. Using Ubuntu Tweak you can install all needed applications with a simple click, you can change the window buttons from Left to right…etc.

2.3 Ubuntu After Install

        Like Ubuntu Tweak, there is an another similar tool called “Ubuntu After install” available. Ubuntu After Install is a tool that can be used to install some of the best and essential software after installing the Ubuntu desktop. It has a bunch of useful applications, and will automate the installation process on a newly installed machine to get near perfect desktop. I would not say a complete desktop for all users, but a near perfect desktop. This tool saves your time and effort, and installs all latest versions of softwares by automatically adding the respective PPA’s to keep the installed softwares up to date on your Ubuntu system.

       The above two tools are enough to get a near perfect Ubuntu desktop for daily usage. These tools will help you to install every essential applications and tweak your system as per your needs for daily usage. You can omit all other things given below. Still you want to continue, go on and check them.

3. Desktop Environments

3.1 Cinnamon

     Cinnamon is a GNOME 3 fork that allow you to have a panel at the bottom with a classic Menu, this is useful for people that want to use Ubuntu with a classic Bottom Menu.

Cinnamon latest version for Ubuntu 14.04 is not yet ported to the stable PPA, however we can install it using nightly builds which is not recommended for the production system.

If you want to install the most recent version of cinnamon, then follow the steps below.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-nightly sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install cinnamon

       Logout from the current session and select Cinnamon as your desktop session at the user login prompt. Now you’ll able to get the Cinnamon Desktop Environment.

3.2 Gnome

             To install GNOME 3 in Ubuntu 14.04, enter the following command:

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell ubuntu-gnome-desktop

During installation, the installer will ask you to select the login manager of your choice (LightDM is the default Unity manager and GDM is the GNOME default — Both will work).

4. Configure Online Accounts

One of the top things you need to do is to setup your online accounts (Facebook, twitter…). To do that click on the gear button on the top right corner and select System Settings.

 

Then, select Online Accounts (see below).

Now setup your online accounts and get notifications in Ubuntu. For example, if you want to add your Facebook account, click on the Facebook icon.

Enter your facebook username and password, and click Log in to authorize.

5. System Monitoring Eye Candy Tools

5.1 Conky

           Conky is a free, light-weight system monitor for X, that displays any information on your desktop. There are many nice themes available for conky that can display clock, CPU usage, RAM usage, swap, disk, net and more.

5.2 Don’t like the default icons, Wanna try some cool icons?

Try the following cool Icon collections.

Want to change the default icons to something that match your taste? Check this nice collection of icons for Ubuntu (PPA included).

6. Multimedia

6.1 VLC Media Player

         VLC is the best media player for Linux it play almost everything, it has many features that you can not find in any other media player, read this post if you want to know what VLC can do: 25 things you can do with VLC Media player!

You can install VLC from Ubuntu Software Center or via terminal by using the following command:

sudo apt-get install vlc

Or install the most recent version 2.1.1 using the following PPA.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:videolan/stable-daily 
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install vlc

6.2 XMBC

     XBMC is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. XBMC is available for Linux, OS X, Windows, and the original Xbox. While XBMC functions very well as a standard media player application for your computer, it has been designed to be the perfect companion for your HTPC. Supporting an almost endless range of remote controls, and combined with its beautiful interface and powerful skinning engine, XBMC feels very natural to use from the couch and is the ideal solution for your home theater.

Open terminal and copy the following commands:

sudo apt-get install xbmc

6.3 Openshot video editor

        My favorite Video editor is Openshot, the best existing actually for Linux. You can install Openshot from Ubuntu Software Center, but if you want to install the latest release, you can do that by adding the following repositories:

Note: PPA is not yet working in 13.10 at the time of writing this article. Hope it will be updated soon.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install openshot openshot-doc

7. Install Common Codecs And Enable DVD playback

          Perhaps, installing a few common codecs might give you better playback for your media files.

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly libxine1-ffmpeg gxine mencoder libdvdread4 totem-mozilla icedax tagtool easytag id3tool lame nautilus-script-audio-convert libmad0 mpg321 gstreamer1.0-libav

To play encrypted DVDs, the libdvdcss2 package is essential. libdvdcss is a simple library designed for accessing DVDs like a block device without having to bother about the decryption.

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/./install-css.sh

7.1 Enable Flash Support On Browsers

      For Ubuntu 32 bit & 64 bit: To be able to watch some videos and see flash website in your browser (Firefox/Chrome), you need to install flash plugin, go to Ubuntu Software Center and search word “flash” and install it.

Alternatively enter the following command to install flash plugins.

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer

8. Torrent Softwares

8.1 uTorrent

       uTorrent is a lightweight and efficient BitTorrent client for Linux, Windows OS and Mac OS. The installation of uTorrent in Linux is different from Windows and Mac OS. In Linux, uTorrent runs as a web server. You will access uTorrent from your browser. You should start the uTorrent server in order to access it from your browser.

8.2 Deluge

         The Deluge application was designed to be a full-featured torrent client. Deluge uses libtorrent in its back-end and PyGTK for its user interface and is currently usable on POSIX-compliant operating systems. It is intended to bring a native, full-featured client to GTK desktop environments such as GNOME and Xfce. An official Windows port is also available.

Open terminal and type the following commands:

sudo apt-get install deluge

9. Messengers

       Here is the list of recommended Messengers for your system. Don’t install everything. Install one by one and pick up the right one for your requirement and delete the rest.

9.1 Pidgin

     The best messenger client and 30 plugins, you can do voice and video chat with friends.

To install Pidgin, enter the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install pidgin

9.2 aMSN

     aMSN is a free windows Live Messenger clone. aMSN attempts to emulate the look and feel of Windows Live Messenger, and supports many of its features.

aMSN has many features which are not present in Windows Live Messenger. Users can set alarms, are able to see others who have removed them from their contact list, and are able to open many profiles at once. It is also very customizable, with extensions and themes available at the main site.

To install aMsn, enter the following command in your terminal.

$ sudo apt-get install amsn

9.3 Jitsi

      Jitsi is an open source and multi platform audio/video Internet phone and instant messenger written in Java. It supports some of the most popular instant messaging and telephony protocols such as SIP, Jabber/XMPP (and hence Facebook and Google Talk), AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger.

For details about Jitsi please check our previous article in the following link.

10. Gaming & Emulators

10.1 Steam

       As you may know, Steam is an ultimate gaming platform developed by Valve corporation. Steam is available for GNU Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. Recently, Valve has developed and released SteamOS, a Linux based distribution built around Steam client. You can either download and install SteamOS on your system, or just download and install the steam client to play games on your existing operating system.

To install Steam On Ubuntu 14.04, enter the following command:

sudo apt-get install steam

Click Ok to continue.

Accept the License agreement.

Now, the steam will be installed on your system. Launch it either from Dash or Menu.

At the first launch, Steam will check for updates and download and install them if updates available.

 

After updating Steam, you can enter into steam and start playing games.

 

If you don’t have an account, create it using the CREATE NEW ACCOUNT link.

This is how my Steam dashboard looks.

10.2 Gaming made easy with Playdeb

     If you are a grate fan of gaming so is important to add PlayDeb repositories to your Lucid Lynx. PlayDeb is a gaming repository for Ubuntu aimed to provide titles already available on getdeb.net in an easier to install and update format. You can install many games by a simple click.

• Click to install PlayDeb repositories

10.3 Wine

       Wine enables Linux, Mac, FreeBSD, and Solaris users to run Windows applications without a copy of Microsoft Windows. Wine is free software under constant development. Other platforms may benefit as well.

sudo apt-get install wine

11. Sharing Files/Folders

11.1 Samba

      In order to share folders in Raring Ringtail with other Linux and windows machines in your network, you will need to install and configure Samba

11.2 Gigola

       Gigola is an another option to share files between Linux and Windows systems. Unlike Samba, we can use Gigola to send files between Linux-to-Linux and Linux-to-Windows systems.

12. Extras & Miscellaneous

12.1 Install Archive Management Apps

       Install the following packages will allow you to deal with almost all and any zip formated files.

sudo apt-get install unace unrar zip unzip p7zip-full p7zip-rar sharutils rar uudeview mpack arj cabextract file-roller

12.2 Y PPA Manager

     Y PPA Manager is a GUI tool to easily add PPAs, search a package in all Launchpad PPAs, remove duplicate PPAs (only works with separate .list files), backup PPAs and other PPA-related tasks. Check out the Launchpad page for a complete features list.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager 

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install y-ppa-manager

Y-PPA-Manager can be launched either from Dash or Menu.

12.3 Install Java 7

      Java is fast, secure, and reliable programming and computing platform. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. To install java simply run the following command from your terminal.

sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk

If you want to try oracle-java 7, try the following steps.

First you need to remove OpenJDK for this run the following command from your terminal:

sudo apt-get purge openjdk*

Now you can install Java 7 by adding the following repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java 

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer

To remove Java 7, run this in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove oracle-java7-installer

12.4 FileZilla

     Filezilla is one of the best ftp client for Linux.

Install it via command line:

sudo apt-get install filezilla

12.5 Dropbox

     Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, phones and even the Dropbox website. Dropbox also makes it super easy to share with others, whether you’re a student or professional, parent or grandparent.

Download the Dropbox package

12.6 Oracle VirtualBox

If you want to run another OS in a virtual machine, install Virtualbox.

12.7 Cheese: Web Cam Software

       Cheese uses your webcam to take photos and videos, applies fancy special effects and lets you share the fun with others. To install cheese on your Ubuntu desktop, enter the following command:

sudo apt-get install cheese

12.8 digikam

     digiKam is an advanced digital photo management application for Linux, Windows, and Mac-OSX. It can be used by Photographers to view, manage, edit, enhance, organize, tag, and share photographs under Linux systems.

You can easily install it using command:

sudo apt-get install digikam

12.9 Gimp

      Regardless of whether you need to edit images daily on a professional level or just a hobbyist, GIMP is an essential tool for all.

sudo apt-get install gimp gimp-data gimp-plugin-registry gimp-data-extras

12.10 Install Compiz

      To install Compiz use the following command:

sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-plugins

13. Desktop Effects

Want to spice-up your desktop with awesome wallpapers, well you can use the following two programs to change your desktop wallpapers in a particular interval.

13.1 Variety

      Variety is a wallpaper changer for Ubuntu which is feature-full, yet slim and very easy to use. It can automatically download wallpapers from various online sources such as Flickr, Wallbase.cc, World sunlight map (a live wallpaper that changes as the day progresses), Wallpapers.net, NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day, Desktoppr.co etc. It allows rotating them on a regular interval or on demand, and provides easy to use ways to separate the great images from the junk.

13.2 Wallch

    Wallch is an application that can be used to change your Ubuntu (Ubuntu derivatives) desktop wallpapers automatically at a particular period of time. It supports Gnome and Unity. It also let you to stop/start wallch, change to next/previous wallpaper. You can adjust/change the wallpaper changing interval. Wallch supports live Earth wallpapers which updates automatically every half an hour, therefore you can set the live Earth wallpapers as your desktop background.

14. Other worth trying applications

14.1 App Grid

      App Grid is a light weight alternative for Ubuntu Software Center. It allows you to filter applications by installed, pending, categories, name and rating. It is released under proprietary license and is available for Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10, 13.04 and 13.10.

14.2 Boot UP Manager(BUM)

     Boot-Up Manager is a Perl-Gtk2 application to manage runlevels configuration of any Ubuntu/Debian derivative systems. Using this program we can easily start and stop boot-up scripts, without the necessity to handle through complex symbolic links and permissions.

14.3 TLP: Improve Battery performance

    TLP is an advanced power management tool for Linux that gives the settings and tweaks to enhance your existing power management automatically without the need to know every technical details. It is purely a command-line tool and doesn’t have a GUI. It should work on almost all laptops.

14.4 BleachBit: Clean up your system

     BleachBit deletes the unnecessary files, free up cache, delete cookies, clear internet history, shred temporary files, delete logs, and discard junk you didn’t know was there. This tool can be used in both Windows OS and Linux systems. And it will support the following applications such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Adobe Flash, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and more. It not only deletes the files, but it includes some advanced features such as shredding files to prevent recovery, wiping free disk space to hide traces of files deleted by other applications, and vacuuming Firefox to make it faster.

14.5 Timeshift

      Timeshift a application that provides functionality similar to the System Restore feature in Windows and the Time Machine tool in Mac OS. TimeShift protects your system by taking incremental snapshots of the file system at regular intervals. These snapshots can be restored later to bring your system to the exact state it was in at the time when the snapshot was taken.

14.5 TypeCatcher

       TypeCatcher is an Open Source application developed by Andrew Starr-Bochicchio. It allows you to easily download and install Google webfonts for off-line use.

14.6 Apt-fast

       Apt-fast is a “shell script wrapper” for apt-get and aptitude that can drastically improve APT download times by downloading packages with multiple connections per package. apt-fast uses aria2c or axel download managers to speed up the APT download time. Just like the traditional apt-get package manager, apt-fast supports almost all apt-get functions such as install, remove, update, upgrade, dist-upgrade etc. And one more notable feature is it supports proxy too.

14.7 Apt-proz & ProZilla

        apt-proz is a shell script similar to apt-fast that increases the download speed of apt-get and aptitude by many times (at least for the developer!). While apt-fast uses Axel or aria2c download manager, apt-proz uses ProZilla download accelerator instead.

ProZilla is a full featured command line download accelerator for Linux operating systems. It downloads a files by splitting into multiple pieces and downloads them simultaneously form multiple connections. It supports pause/resume, http/ftp protocols.

Also install the following useful software’s if you like.

• Opera – The fastest browser on Earth is even faster. But that is not all. Use Opera Turbo to double your page-download speed on slow connections.

• Google Chrome – Web browser from Google

• Google Earth – Travel to cities across the globe, dive into the depths of the ocean, explore remote islands or even fly to faraway galaxies.

Now you’ve reached the end of the article. At this stage, you’ll have a perfect and full fledged Ubuntu 14.04 Desktop.