Learning Journey

How to set default printer in Linux or Unix

If you are using terminal setup in Unix systems like Linux, you can configure your default printer by:

1. csh shell version (by editing ~/.cshrc or ~/.tcshrc configuration files)

setenv PRINTER your-printer-name

2. bash shell version (by editing ~/.bashrc configuration file)

export PRINTER=your-printer-name

If CUPS is available in your system, you may issue the following command to have this change:

lpoptions -d printer-name

The ‘d’ option sets the default printer.

In the case of Ubuntu Linux, you can just go System->Administration->Printing to set up a printer as the default printer. Just click the Make default button on the Settings tab.

How to generate PS file in Windows environment

In order to create a Postscript (PS) file from Windows applications: simply print from the application, selecting a postscript printer and using the printing option “print to file”.

A dialog box will open, allowing you to choose the folder in which you wish to create the PostScript file. Choose a name for the file (a .prn extension will be appended to the filename). When you select Save, the printer driver will save the Postscript file in the location you select instead of actually sending the postscript file to the printer. You may need to change the file extension to .ps after file is generated.

However, very likely, using the printer driver for your own printer will result in files that are targeted at that printer, and hence not completely portable. To achieve portability, you will need to install and use another printer driver. Also you may not have any postscript printer with you at the moment. The solution to this is to install a virtual postscript printer, i.e. install printer drivers without actually having the corresponding printer.
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How to restart CUPS in Linux

Simply execute the following command will restart CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System) service in Linux like Ubuntu:

#/etc/init.d/cupsys restart

By the way, CUPS is the standards-based, open source printing system developed by Apple Inc. for Mac OS X and other UNIX-like operating systems.

How to solve “Another blog is already hosted at this address”

Sometime when you try to publish a custom domain like chengsoongiap.com on Blogger, you may get the message “Another blog is already hosted at this address.”

Most of the time, this is due to your DNS setting. Anyway make sure that you stop the web service of Google Apps if you happen to use this service.

One way to overcome this problem which I did with my sites was to configure my DNS as:

mydomain.com.          3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
www.mydomain.com. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

With this configuration, you have a “CNAME” referral which points directly to a Google server. When the Blogger script verifies that the domain URLs both point to Google, it can proceed with confidence.
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How to uncompress pp_ file (compress form of PPD file)

The pp_ which is coming with printer driver is the compressed form of PPD (Postscript Printer Description) file. PPD files are created by vendors to describe the entire set of features and capabilities available for their Postscript printers.

To uncompress it you, execute the following command:

Example: file.pp_

C:\expand file.pp_ file.ppd

How to use RPM in Fedora Linux

RPM is used to build, install, query, verify, update, and erase individual software packages. It was originally designed to work with Red Hat / Fedora Linux. Currently it also works on other rpm-based distributions: Suse, Mandriva Linux, Conectiva and etc.

To install software packages, use the following command:

rpm -i foobar.rpm

To uninstall a software package:

rpm -e foobar.rpm

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How to RSS feed into your WordPress post

In Blogger, it is quite easy to add content from an RSS or Atom feed to your blog. I used this feature in Blogger so far. However, I can’t find it in WordPress.

FirstRSS is a simple RSS aggregator plugins for WordPress which I found recently. I have used FirstRSS plugin in ChengSoonGiap.com to insert RSS feed from related blogs.

Picasa 3 for photo editing

Few photos start out perfectly. One of the software I use frequently in editing photos is Picasa. Picasa is Google’s freeware for photo management.

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How to have Adsense appear under the first post in WordPress blog?

Following is what I learned recently on having Adsense codes only appear after the first post in WordPress blog and nowhere else.

Open the index.php file and search for the following lines:

<!–p if (have_posts()) –>
<!–p $postCount=0;–>
<!–p while (have_posts()) : the_post(); $loopcounter++–>
<!–p $postCount++–>

Add the following above these lines:

<?php
$postnum = 1;
$showadsense1 = 1;
?>

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How to convert mp4 to AVI in Windows

I usually use Windows Movie Maker which is bundled with Microsoft Windows to edit video taken using my digital camera. It supports quite a number of video formats like AVI, WMV and so on. However, MP4 is not support in it so far.

Following is a free software I found recently for converting MP4 file into AVI file:

Quick Media Converter

According to Quick Media Converter introduction, it enables users to convert between most audio and video formats, including AVI, DVD, Quicktime, Flash, Xvid, DivX, MPEG, MP3, WMA, MP4, 3GP and many others. Users can convert multiple files (of different formats) in a single process and optionally customize the output settings in Expert Mode.
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