The Open Sourcerer

The United Colours of Ubuntu

The lovely new grown up and professional branding of Ubuntu is great, I love it. The new Ubuntu Community Orange is great, however what colour is it exactly? Well looking at the design toolkit the official colour is an RGB hex specification of #DD4814 or a CMYK specification of  C0 M79 Y100 K0 or the Pantone colour 1665. So three different specifications, but they should all amount to the same thing surely? Well . . . no. If you put #DD4814 into Gimp or Inkscape or any Ubuntu app with a colour picker really, and then flip from RGB space to CMYK you will see that it corresponds to C0 M67 Y 91 K13. So is the design guide wrong? Well having discussed it with the design team they assure me that when actually printed on stuff C0 M79 Y100 K0 is absolutely the right colour  to match the screen colour of #DD4814.

Now in an EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) file you can specify colours in several ways including the pantone colour. Here is a screenshot of various files from the design toolkit opened in Ubuntu. First a PNG specified in hex as #DD2814, then EPS files with the Ubuntu Orange colour specified as CMYK, RGB and as a Pantone colour.

Quite a spectacular range of colours really! So is Ubuntu getting this all wrong then? I asked someone who still has a Windows machine to try the same thing. . .

That is Adobe Illustrator showing the EPS files and Windows picture viewer for the png. So a different range of assorted colours from the same files! How about a Mac, designers use them, they must get it right!

Yet another collection of colours (not entirely sure of the order of the EPS files, but the .png is the one that opened in the browser).

So it seems that colour matching across images and operating systems is in a confusing and contradictory state of affairs. Personally I think Ubuntu gets it right, stuff generated in an Ubuntu app with #DD4814 can then be printed to a PDF and it is still #DD4814. PDFs produced by the designers seem to have the colours not quite right. This evening there is an Ubuntu Developer Summit session on colour theory and the Ubuntu palette https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/multimedia-design-n-science-of-colour where the plans for colour will be discussed. Should be an interesting session.

How to remove Mono from Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

sudo apt-get purge libmono* cli-common

The following packages will be REMOVED
cli-common* gbrainy* libappindicator0.1-cil* libart2.0-cil* libgconf2.0-cil*
libglade2.0-cil* libglib2.0-cil* libgmime2.4-cil* libgnome-vfs2.0-cil*
libgnome2.24-cil* libgnomepanel2.24-cil* libgtk2.0-cil*
liblaunchpad-integration1.0-cil* libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil*
libmono-addins0.2-cil* libmono-cairo2.0-cil* libmono-corlib2.0-cil*
libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil* libmono-management2.0-cil* libmono-posix2.0-cil*
libmono-security2.0-cil* libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil* libmono-system2.0-cil*
libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil* libndesk-dbus1.0-cil* mono-2.0-gac*
mono-csharp-shell* mono-gac* mono-gmcs* mono-runtime* tomboy*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 31 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

How to remove Mono from Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx [Updated]

Monogenea

To remove Mono from your shiny new desktop installation of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx enter the following command (after taking the usual precautions like backups of your data etc):

sudo apt-get purge libmono* libgdiplus cli-common libglitz-glx1 libglitz1

[UPDATE: Many thanks to Directhex who pointed out my error regarding the need to remove libsqlite0. I've removed it from the command above. He also requested (you can see in his comment below), that I mention that the mononono package is no longer particularly effective at preventing Mono from being installed. Thanks for the prompt Jo, I was going to but I just forgot.]

This is almost the same one as used for the Karmic Koala release (9.10), and for me the result of the above command was as follows:

The following packages will be REMOVED
cli-common* f-spot* gbrainy* libart2.0-cil* libflickrnet2.2-cil* libgconf2.0-cil* libgdiplus* libglade2.0-cil* libglib2.0-cil* libglitz-glx1* libglitz1* libgmime2.4-cil* libgnome-keyring1.0-cil* libgnome-vfs2.0-cil*
libgnome2.24-cil* libgnomepanel2.24-cil* libgtk2.0-cil* liblaunchpad-integration1.0-cil* libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil* libmono-addins0.2-cil* libmono-cairo2.0-cil* libmono-corlib2.0-cil* libmono-data-tds2.0-cil* libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil* libmono-posix2.0-cil* libmono-security2.0-cil* libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil* libmono-sqlite2.0-cil* libmono-system-data2.0-cil* libmono-system-runtime2.0-cil* libmono-system-web2.0-cil* libmono-system2.0-cil* libmono2.0-cil* libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil* libndesk-dbus1.0-cil* libnunit2.4-cil* mono-2.0-gac* mono-gac* mono-runtime* tomboy*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 40 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 49.8MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

I chose to accept this and proceeded. Of course YMMV so please check carefully before hitting that enter key. The purge switch of this command removes any configuration files as well as the packages themselves.

Compared to Ubuntu 9.10, in 10.04 there appears to be just one new Mono dependant application called gbrainy (in the Games menu) which is described thus: “a platform to train memory, arithmetical and logical capabilities with many sorts of different exercises of different difficulty levels”.

Unfortunately it appears as though the “training” objective of gbrainy might not be realised…

Over the last year or so, the BBC have carried out an experiment which examined “brain trainer” games. Subsequent analysis of the data found that these brain trainers are an empty promise as reported here in The Guardian:

Practising brain-training games will improve your performance on brain-training games, but that effect will not transfer to other aspects of brain function. They will not make you brainier, so you may as well just pootle around on the internet.

It seems that not much grey matter will be lost by removing the gbrainy package then

Gnote and Getting Things Gnome

For a very similar alternative to Tomboy try Gnote, and as I like task-related management too I also recommend the excellent GTG [Getting Things Gnome] application. To install these two simply type: sudo apt-get install gnote gtg.

The alternative for F-Spot I usually use is a combination of gthumb and Gimp, the latter of which has been removed from the default Lucid desktop install to make space for other things. Both of these applications can be easily installed by a simple sudo apt-get install gthumb gimp command. However there is now a new kid on the block which looks quite exciting called shotwell. Shotwell will be the default camera/image app in the forthcoming Fedora 13 distribution replacing gthumb (as it has no dependencies on Mono in the default desktop installation). It is also, I was pleased to discover, available in the main Lucid repository so can be installed using either the command line: sudo apt-get install shotwell or you can use the very easy and graphically attractive Ubuntu Software Centre (as you can for the other applications listed above also). This is how Fedora describe Shotwell in the preliminary release notes:

Shotwell is an open source photo organizer designed for the GNOME desktop environment and has replaced Gthumb by default in Fedora 13. It supports the following features:

• import photos from any digital camera supported by gPhoto
• automatically organize events containing photos taken at the same time
• use tags to organize your photo collection
• edit non-destructively when altering photos, without ruining originals or using disk space for each copy
• publish photos to Facebook, Flickr or Picasa
• one-click auto-enhancement
• rotate, mirror, and crop photos
• reduce red-eye and adjust the exposure, saturation, tint, and temperature of your photos
• edit any photo, even if it’s not imported to the Shotwell library

I haven’t used Shotwell yet but it sounds like a good one to try out.

There you have it and hopefully that will be it for another 6 months on this subject.

Planet Saving Software for Linux now released!

The Granola Gui on Ubuntu 9.10

This morning I had an email telling me they’ve completed their testing and have now hit final release. They’ve also changed the name of the software from Micromiser to Granola:

Happy Earth Day!

The MiserWare team is proud to announce that MicroMiser Beta is out of beta and now called Granola! Why the name change? We feel like the name Granola more accurately captures our goal of making a serious impact on the planet through the reduction of wasted energy. Along with the name change, we are also rolling out a new website that allows us to increase awareness and attract new users to Granola. Check out the new site at http://grano.la/

There are over a billion personal computers in the world. Together, they consume hundreds of billions of kilowatt hours annually. If each of these computers ran Granola and reduced their power consumption by even 10%, it would be like taking 7 million cars off the road. Or planting 900 million trees. Or turning off 65 coal power plants.

The first step to protecting the Earth starts with individuals decreasing their own environmental impact and encouraging those close to them to do the same. Running Granola yourself is a great first step, but really making an impact requires the users of Granola to encourage their friends and family to also use the software. For every new computer that runs Granola, we are one step closer to the vision of Granola on every system worldwide.

For Linux PCs:

If you’re already running MicroMiser Beta and using the MiserWare Software Repository, Granola will automatically replace MicroMiser Beta the next time you check for your software updates. Otherwise, please visit the Granola download page at http://grano.la/help/ This release of Granola also includes support for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. Also, due to popular demand we have created a GUI for Linux, supported on FC11+ and Ubuntu 9.04+! Find instructions and information about the new GUI at http://grano.la/help/install.php#gui

For Windows PCs:

Granola for Microsoft Windows includes automatic updates to keep Granola on your PC up to date with the latest version. If you are already running MicroMiser Beta, there is no need to uninstall. Simply download the installer from http://grano.la/help/ and Granola will replace MicroMiser Beta.

Regards,

The MiserWare Team

—
Change Log

* Added Windows automatic updates.
* Added a Linux GUI.
* Improved Windows installer.
* Re-branded MicroMiser as Granola.
* Remove Debian 4.0 Etch and add Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid.
* Added CumulateReportFile option to granola.conf.
* Re-factored the Windows GUI to centralize all of the style data (colours and fonts so far).
* Added persistent reporting to MicroMiser.
* Added failure resilience to the update downloading code.
* Updated the Python for the updater. Added code in MicroMiser Application to gracefully handle update failures.
* Updated get_updates to check for an MSI and download updated versions if available.
* Fixed a bug where we do not chown or chmod the var lib MiserWare directory and can be left not being able to write to our own directory.

As they say, even if the energy savings on individual computers are relatively small, the cumulative effect across millions of machines will be significant. I’ve had this software running on many different machines around our home and on laptops & netbooks with no noticeable impact on performance. Please try it out and tell your friends and family.

I updated my Ubuntu Karmic desktop install this morning and noticed one small problem with the instructions on their website. For me I had to explicitly install the gui with sudo apt-get install granola-gui. I’ve emailed them about it.

The software is free for personal use, but I should point out that most of it is not Free (as in Open Source). There are some interesting words on their Wiki page about what is free and what isn’t and what they (Miserware) are all about:

Why are you giving Granola away for free?
We care about the environment and we are proud of the ability of our software to make computers more energy efficient. We also like when our laptops last longer and our servers cost less to operate. We want everyone to be able to use our software on their personal machines. So, early on we decided that in addition to creating enterprise power management software, we would also create a commercial-grade consumer version, Granola. Granola is free for your personal use and we have no intention of charging for it anytime soon.

We also need to create a thriving business so we can make computers even more energy efficient (trust us, we’ve got lots of other cool stuff on the drawing board). We are a small startup working out of a basement, and we provide Granola for free with the intent of helping to clean up the world. If you would like to donate to help us continue to provide Granola for free, we would welcome the funds. If you work for a company that you think would benefit from MiserWare software, we would love for you to refer them to us.

I think it is important that this kind of product is encouraged. In my opinion every little bit we can do to reduce our energy consumption is a Good Thing…

Update on UK Gov’s Institutional Profligacy

As you may recall, a couple of weeks ago I used Write to Them to contact my MP, Jeremy Hunt, regarding the comments of the new CIO of HMRC and how it seemed that saving money was not being encouraged by our civil servants. I discussed it in this blog post:

Phil Pavitt, recently-appointed CIO for HM Revenue and Customs, has revealed that attempts to cut government budget is positively discouraged. In a telling anecdote, he says “In my first few weeks of the job I was visited by leading members of the Cabinet Office. In that conversation with me they mentioned I am in the top purchasing club… That means you have tremendous influence on buying power, buying ideas and management and so on.”I said ‘If I reduce costs by 50 per cent what happens?’, ‘Well, you leave the club,’ I was told.”

A couple of days ago I got a follow up from Jeremy after he received a reply from the Rt. Hon Angela Smith MP, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office. He didn’t seem that impressed…

Dear Alan,

Further to my email of 16th February 2010, I have now received the attached response from the Rt Hon Angela Smith MP, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office.

Given the worrying content of your email, the Minister has responded with little more than a standard response about how they always try to obtain good value for money.

Sadly we will never know what was said amongst the Minister and her civil servants about your email. However, I think we can be confident that it bore no resemblance to the final response I received!

Whilst Ms Smith’s comments are not surprise, I am sorry to have to pass on such a disappointing reply. If there is anything further I can take up with the Minister in the future on this issue, please feel free to let me know.

Best wishes

Jeremy

Jeremy Hunt
Member of Parliament
South West Surrey

I’ve attached the reply* so everyone can read it. Here is page 1, and here is page 2.

As you will see, the response is just a stock reply and gives almost no comment whatsoever to the main thrust of the question.

* The Minister’s response was emailed to me as a scanned PDF and it contained my home address and her email and phone numbers. I imported it into Inkscape and obfuscated those details which ended up creating 2 separate files.

OT: Quick update on the Chillies

It’s just over 5 weeks since my Chilli seeds were removed from their packets and started off in the airing cupboard.

A few people have kindly enquired about their current status. Here’s a few pictures…

Some New Chilli Plants

Some more chillis

The next update will probably after potting-on.