"Journey to the Stars" at the California Academy of Sciences

The latest show at the California Academy of Sciences (CAS), "Journey to the Stars," premiers on September 26th. The CAS, in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York, created an excellent visual and scientific experience for all ages, yielding an impressive work that both teaches and amazes with its sharp, detailed images of the life cycle of stars.

The Morrison Planetarium at the CAS is an all-digital theater with a 75 foot dome that transforms itself into the night sky and transports the audience to the far reaches of the galaxy. I continue to marvel at the way in which new technology and research are being combined by the AMNH and CAS to bring the latest astronomical and cosmological discoveries to mainstream audiences in a way that makes the science interesting and vivid. For example, during "Journey to the Stars" I was very impressed with close-up visits to the Orion Nebula and Helix Nebula in which the audience gets a close-up view of the depth and breadth of these star-forming regions of space. Classroom learning about star formation is one thing; seeing the amazing photographs such as the Pillars of Creation from the Hubble Space Telescope is another; but the interactive view of these places with the advanced digital imaging that you see in "Journey to the Stars" is, in my view, extraordinary.

The show runs many times daily and I strongly urge anyone with an interest in science and astronomy to head out to Golden Gate Park to take in this riveting show.

Brilliant Venus shining in the morning sky

Venus, the brilliant morning "star", dominates the morning sky. During the next week it will have a close encounter with the waning Moon and then a very close alignment with Regulus, the brightest star in the zodiac constellation Leo. Now that the sunrise is getting later each morning, it's not so unusual to get up when it is dark enough to see brilliant Venus in the eastern sky. The diagrams will help you to find your way in the eastern sky.

Internet Monitoring With SARG and Squid On Windows

SARG aka Squid Analysis Report Generator is a nice little tool that analyses Squid's access.log files and creates a management friendly report along with graph.

This guide is for someone who have already configured SARG on Linux box.

1. Install Squid on Windows. You can follow this post squid-on-windows
2. SARG port for windows is available in the SARG website itself SARG. Or download it by clicking here.
3. Unzip it in C:\sarg
4. Edit sarg.conf file inside c:\sarg\etc
   1. Edit access_log
   2. graph option
   3. output_dir where your web server can be pointed.
   4. Others that you think is important. This is very simple file with all needed description.
5. Make your scheduled task to run SARG and rotate Squid.

Squid On Windows

Here is a short and simple guide for installing Squid on Windows for those who knows how it works in Linux.

1. Windows port for Squid is available from Acme Consulting. Grab it from http://squid.acmeconsulting.it/
2. Unzip it and put it in C drive making the folder structure c:\squid
3. You'll find squid.conf file in C:\squid\etc\squid.conf
4. Configure it as per your requirements. (mainly the following)
   1. Your hostname
   2. Dns server
   3. Cache directory
   4. ACL
   5. logrotate
      (make sure that the options you choose are available with the squid you chose by running squid -v)
5. Create the cache directory by:
1. Open Command Prompt
2. Go to C:\squid\sbin
3. Run squid.exe -D -z
6. Install the squid service by running squid.exe -i
7. You can manage squid service from services.msc or using the squid.exe CLI. Unlike Linux you may need to pass "-n Squid" as parameters for few commands.
8. Set scheduled task to rotate your log.
9. You may need to use third party software to transparently use this Squid. Until then configure the browsers to use this Squid.

Google Chrome Update Keeps Appearing Even After Removing From Application Sources

I use Google Chrome -unstable as my primary browser and am very happy with it. But one problem I keep facing is it asks me to update the daily build each day. Removing it from /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list doesn't help.
So if you also don't want to install the daily build each and every day follow the following steps:

1. Remove the google-chrome apt list from /etc/apt/sources.list
2. Remove the google-chrome.list file from /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
3. Remove the file /etc/default/google-chrome

This should prevent Google Chrome daily updates.


P.S. If by change you landed here and don't have Google chrome and want to install it get the daily build from here or the deb package from here(32 bit) or here(64 bit).

Install Firefox 3.5 on OLPC XO

1. Download Firefox 3.5 from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html for Linux.
2. Open your xo
3. Put the extracted Firefox in /home/olpc/Activities
4. Rename it to Firefox. activity
5. Go inside /home/olpc/Activities/Firefox.activity
6. Make a folder "activity"
7. Go inside /home/olpc/Activities/Firefox.activity/activity
8. Make a file activity.info with following content
   
   

   [Activity]
   name = Firefox
   service_name = org.laptop.firefox35
   icon = firefox
   activity_version = 35
   show_launcher = yes
   exec = ./firefox

9. Put one svg icon for Firefox in /home/olpc/Activities/Firefox.activity/activity with file name firefox.svg
10. Change the permission of /home/olpc/Activities/Firefox.activity to 755 by running
    chmod -R 755 /home/olpc/Activities/Firefox.activity
11. Change the owner of the /home/olpc/Activities/Firefox.activity to olpc:olpc by running
    chown -R olpc:olpc /home/olpc/Activities/Firefox.activity
    
12. Restart the X server by pressing Alt+Ctrl+Erase
13. Your Firefox 3.5 is ready though you won't find it in favorite view.

If the toolbars and page content appears too big then follow the steps below:

1. Open about:config
2. Edit layout.css.dpi to 96

KFOG Broadcast - September 8, 2009

Get involved: AANC astronomy lectures and star party on September 12

Here's a chance to dive into astronomy and hear from the scientists that are making news right now. The Astronomical Association of Northern California (AANC) is opening the first day of its annual meeting to the public on Saturday September 12th at the Westin Hotel at SFO in Millbrae. The day features a broad range of talks about astronomy, from imaging of the heavens through the Hubble Space Telescope, to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), to the upcoming NASA Lunar Impactor mission (LCROSS mission), and the history of the telescope. Also there will be telescopes for solar observing during the day and a star party in the evening (lead by yours truly). Register online - high-school age students are Free. Visit aancstars2009.org for details.

Saturn has no rings!

If you could get a good telescopic view of Saturn today, you would find that it has no rings. At least that would appear to be the case for several days as another rare phenomenon takes place in the Solar System. Of all of the beautiful objects in the sky, Saturn is one of those wonderful heavenly targets that can be seen from cities and country, from spacecraft and flying telescopes, and always impresses the viewer. The second largest planet in the Solar System, Saturn has the largest and most distinctive ring system (Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune also have ring systems). The detailed photographs sent back to Earth from the Voyager and Cassini spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope have given us stunning perspectives into the depth and intricacies of the Saturnian ring system.

Saturn's ring system is very thin (less than 50 feet thick), and when viewed 'edge-on' from Earth it is virtually invisible. Saturn, like Earth, has a tilt in its rotation such that it has seasons as it moves around the Sun in its 30-year orbit. Consequently, every 15 years we see the ring system from the side and for a short while it disappears from view altogether. Although the ring system is very thin, it is extremely wide -- about 170,000 miles across, making the system even bigger than Jupiter!

Saturn is currently moving its way westward across the constellation Leo the Lion and is not visible due to its proximity to the Sun in the morning sky. It will gradually emerge from the glare of the dawn and be visible before sunrise. By the end of the year it will be rising in the east just before midnight and by next spring will be a gorgeous evening object with its ring system back in view. Until then, enjoy Jupiter and its fascinating moon system -- except when they aren't there!

Jupiter has no moons!

Tonight Jupiter will have no moons. At least that will appear to be the case for a short while, as a rare phenomenon takes place in which all of the four bright moons of Jupiter will not be visible for viewers on Earth.

Any night of the year that Jupiter is visible, you can usually spot several of the four Galilean moons. Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are big enough that they are easy to find in a telescope or even binoculars. The inner three moons, Io, Europa and Ganymede orbit Jupiter very rapidly, in 2, 4 and 8 days respectively. So on any given night the relative position of the four moons changes and the pattern of the four moons around Jupiter - from our point of view - is always in flux. The above image from Sky and Telescope Magazine helps to illustrate this.

To make things more interesting, as a moon passes directly in front of Jupiter or behind it (or in the shadow of Jupiter) it becomes invisible for a few hours. This evening from 7:00 to 12:00 pacific time, the moons will be invisible for some period of time, with all four moons being out of view from 9:43 until 11:29 pacific. If you have a telescope or binoculars, use them to catch the changing pattern of the moons and witness this unusual alignment.

Jupiter, by the way, can be easily spotted tonight as the bright "star" in the east near the full Moon.

Fixing small bugs in Ubuntu

A bugs like typo doesn't require you to have a great technical knowledge. Yet there are many bugs in launchpad that are related to typos. Once you start fixing this kinds of bugs chances are you will move on and start fixing more complex bug simple and small bugs.

So how do we get started ? If you haven't missed yesterday's #ubuntu-classroom you should have known a lot. Here I'm just trying to replay yesterday's class by dholbach on "Fixing small bugs in Ubuntu".

First of all lets prepare our system. It is recommended to use a development release. Its not important at this moment. For now open your terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends bzr ubuntu-dev-tools devscripts dpkg-dev cdbs

Now make sure you have 'Sources' enabled in System -> Administration -> Software Sources -> Ubuntu Software .

Now open ~/.bashrc file in your favorite text editor. Add the following line to it.

export DEBFULLNAME='Your Name'
export DEBEMAIL='youremail@domain.com'

Now save the file and run it by going to terminal and typing:

source ~/.bashrc

What this does is sets the variable DEBFULLNAME and DEBEMAIL for this session. After every restart the ~/.bashrc file is automatically run and sets the variable.

Now lets look at the bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/edubuntu-addon-meta/+bug/404608

The bug states a typo in package description.
Now lets get the source of the package edubuntu-addon-meta. Open your terminal and type:

apt-get source edubuntu-addon-meta

now cd to that directory(edubuntu-addon-meta-0.12)

The package description is in the file debian/control. Open that file, fix the typo and save it.

Now we need to document the change we made in debian/changelog.
For this we can use dch tool. Now run:

dch -i

This will create a changelog entry increment the version number.
Now put something like this as the actual changelog entry
debian/control: replaced "form" with "from". (LP: #404608)
This describes what action was done on what file and also mentions the bug number in special format. The format LP: #xxxxxxxxxx closes the bug automatically on upload. With detailed information it enables others to revisit the bug and better understand why you did you changes. Save the file now.

Now run:

debuild -S

which will rebuild the source package. You can ignore the signing part for now. Now if you cd .. then you'll see edubuntu-addon-meta_0.12.dsc edubuntu-addon-meta_0.12.tar.gz edubuntu-addon-meta_0.13.dsc edubuntu-addon-meta_0.13.tar.gz and few other files.
This means you successfully rebuilt the source package.

After fixing the bug it is must for you to test it before distributing.

Now run:

debdiff edubuntu-addon-meta_0.12.dsc edubuntu-addon-meta_0.13.dsc

This will show the difference in the version.
You can redirect the output to edubuntu-addon-meta.fix and attach to bug report.

Bug fixed.

Please go through the irc logs to see this in action and to see more bugs fixed.

Ubuntu Developers Week, don't miss

From Monday, 31st August 2009 to Friday, 4th September 2009 there is going to be Ubuntu developers week. This is a event you can't afford to miss and all you need to attend is an IRC.

Check your timetable for the class here.
If you need to prepare for the session click here.
Then join #ubuntu-classroom for your desired class. This class is muted so if you need to talk or ask question do it in #ubuntu-classroom-chat. Remember questions are prefixed with QUESTION.

More info here.

Use localepurge to remove unnecessary locales

Ubuntu, Debian and and many Linux Distros comes bundled with many locales. Locale beside yours is hardly useful for you. Most people use one or two locale or locales that represent them. For example people from America will most probably use only en_us locale while people from India might use both Indian and American locale.


There isn't any problem having many locale lying in your system. But if you have computer with minimum hard disk space like Dell Mini 9 then it might be good idea for you to remove unnecessary locale and free space. Also you don't have to waste time compiling all the locale when you only need some of them. This saves time while updating and installing some application.


Now to remove the unnecessary locales, open terminal and type

sudo apt-get install localepurge