There's an antivirus called ubuntu

I stumbled upon this thread in ubuntuforums.org today: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1412150

The question been asked is:

"A frient of mine heard of a program that will make you never get viruses again.
Its called Ubuntu. I go to the site and download the program, but it wont install.
How do I install it. I got like a lot of viruses and dont like that it makes my computer slow and sends stuff to friends.
I just want to chat with my friends and internet without getting viruses.
This is the good site to ask about this, right.
Srry for my bad english."

The people in the forums have answered him, welcoming him to the linux world, telling him that Ubuntu is an operating system - not an antivirus, etc. And at one point the problem poser says:

"Wubi. I download it and click install. Its busy now.
Thank you for the help.
I don't know what a operating system is. I hope just the viruses are gone.
I think this is what my friend got."

He is just another typical example of a normal computer user who doesn't want to know the inside out of a computer, but just use it for his day to day tasks.

"It isn't windows. I didnt know that. Just dont want viruses anymore.
I can chat and use internet with ubuntu. Youtube, facebook, msn. Yes."

Ubuntu will be the best choice for him. It's very good that he chose ubuntu forums. Just to know that you have a whole community to help you when in trouble, that's lovely!

We meet lots of people having similar problems - who don't know what an operating system is, who just want to know how to get their surfing and wordprocessing done hazzle-free. All we people need to do is to carefully guide them in their transition to Ubuntu, without burdening them with technical stuff. Just make their life in ubuntu wonderful and exciting!

There's an antivirus called ubuntu

Need for Speed: reading the web faster

Everyone need to read web pages. News sites, reference material, this and that. Unfortunately most pages are designed to discourage our reading experience. Some have letters so that we need to magnify the screen to read. And there are those pages which have so many words per row, that we almost always get lost when moving to the next line.

And we have our problems too. Inability to concentrate on anything makes us read the same para again and again.

Not to worry. At least in the computing world, problems are solved nearly in the same speed they appear. There are several interesting tools we can use to enhance our reading experience in the web.

1. RSVP Reader

This is a nice addon for Firefox. Once installed it brings a new toolbar with several buttons and a text area. To read some text all you need to do is select the text and click the Play button on the toolbar. It then begins to show chunks of the text in the text area which is the only place you need to keep your eye on while reading. You can adjust the font size, number of words displayed per minute and the length of the chunks.
Since you do not have to move your eyes in the screen your attention is not lost. For articles you want to skim through, for example long articles to be read in a short amount of time, you can increase the wpm value. May not be much suitable for reading technical stuff, but really great for going through news, stories, etc.
And it is said that by using this your speed reading skills improve too. It's a pity a substitute is not yet available for Chrome.

2. Reasy

This somewhat an extension to the RSVP reader. It makes the words scroll in the page while blocking the view of the real page content. Meant to further reduce the distractions. More focused on the presentation of the text, rather than many options, the author claims. But I personally dislike this.

3. Readability

Ever noticed that it is far easier to read the slim columns of a newspaper than long sentences in a book? Wished everything was in columns like that? Readability is the answer.

This ain't an addon, but a bookmarklet, something (a script in fact) you can drag and drop in your bookmarks bar and can be used in all browsers. You can first adjust the font style, size and margin size and then drag the bookmarklet to the bar. To read using this gadget, all you have to do is to hit the Readability bookmarklet while you're on the page you wish to read. If the RSVP reader's pace is too fast for you this will fit. The only drawback is Readability still lacks support for certain sites and has difficulty in displaying bulleted lists, etc.

This list isn't exhaustive. These are just the ones I'm using daily and would give you a started. I noticed that googling "read online faster" gives a plenty of results.

And, finally, if you want to increase your reading speed as a whole, I'd recommend Tony Buzan's Speed Reading book for best results.

Need for Speed: reading the web faster

This is the way we comb our hair

I and my friend moved to this new boarding place in rajagiriya. We hadn't brought much of the belongings from the previous place, so had to shop for toothpastes, soap, combs, shoe polish, and all such minor stuff.

I love the pavement shops in the Borella junction. You can shop while you're walking to the bus stop. You can shop when you're waiting for your friend to arrive. You can shop even while you're hurrying for some important task. And, these shops can cater to most of your daily needs, too.

So almost all the stuff we bought were from these pavement shops. The prices aren't scary, and you can always find the cheapest of the kind. But when we got back and tried to comb our hairs, this is what we found out:

Too bad. Why didn't we double check before we put the thing to the bags? Because it was too small a thing to check? It cost only 30 rupees though. But 30 is 30, you know. Got to find some glue to fix the thing now.

Yes, plastic goodies in the market these days are so carelessly assembled. Especially those tiny things we find in the pavement shops including toys. Whatever amount it costs, we ought to check the thing twice just to be safe.

And the moral of the story is, you'll go to work with the hair messed up the next day if you don't do your shopping carefully.

This is the way we comb our hair

I need a book light

I badly need a book light. Because the best time to read without other stuff to think about is when you're in the bed waiting for the sleep to arrive. It's the only time when you're not worried about checking the mail every five minutes or looking what others are tweeting about. The only time you have when the book is the world for you.

But then there's the problem of light. When you're at the bed it's dark. No luxury of a bedlight which you can turn off just on the moment sleep engulfs you. We people are boarders. No one to turn our lights off when we fall into sleep. So the only option seems to be a booklight.

I browsed sites about booklights for several days, but still haven't made up the mind to buy any particular one. Firstly, there was the problem of no credit card, but that problem will soon be solved with a Sampath web card. Then the price. A fairly good one will cost at least $15 which of course is too much for a chap like me. And the other problem is charging it. Seems most of the lights available on ebay are battery powered, AAA ones in that case. Their prices ain't sweet either. Of course, a recharger has to be bought, but still have to pay some handsome money for that, too. The best option would be to look for a light coming with a power pack, as the laptops do. Not quite sure of the availability anyway.

If anyone of you readers have experience in using one, please be kind to share the story.

I need a book light

People around us

Lately, I was thinking about the nice people around me. How unique each of them is! Wow, it's really nice to have so much different people to talk to!

Yes, some of them are really annoying at times, but yet, they're wonderful in so me way or other. Each of them have some nice feature if we think about it. X is studious, but I love him seeing studying, to see how some people can really put whole their efforts into boring things like that. And he does that really well too! Y behaves quite odd most of the time. But the more I talk with him, the more I get to know about the things in the world I don't know.

And there's this person S, who rarely speaks. I watch him walking, how he's not interested in most of the things happening around him. He's by himself. People make fun of him, but it's not him that cares. Why should he?

T's sentences always contain some bad words, even curses. But he's quite creative with that. I know of no one who can use bad words in such a creative manner.

In fact, we always only see the bad things of people. Forget the thousand good things he's done, if he commits one thing we find wrong, that's it. Yet how many of us try to think of the good and unique features of all these people? How the world will lose him if he were not here! Ain't these the people who add spice to the world we live in?

People around us