ClassicMenu Indicator brings back the old school cool from GNOME2 in Ubuntu 16.04

Anyone here remember the massive community back clash when Unity was first introduced? A lot of that had to do with the replacement of GNOME2’s rather straight forward menu system with a more modern Unity Launcher that we see today. ClassicMenu Indicator is a small plugin that could bring back some of that old glory.

Source: ClassicMenu Indicator brings back the old school cool from GNOME2 in Ubuntu 16.04 (Tech Drive-in)

5 Warning Signs That Your SSD Is About to Break Down & Fail

Whether you’re buying a laptop or a desktop today, it’s advisable to get a Solid State Drive (SSD) over a traditional Hard Disk Drive (HDD). SSDs are faster, more stable, and conserve less power, making them superior in every way. But that doesn’t mean SSDs are flawless.

Source: 5 Warning Signs That Your SSD Is About to Break Down & Fail (MakeUseOf)

10 Easy Ways to Restore Your Linux System

Reverting your operating system to a previous state without consequences sounds almost like magic. You can quickly return to your work as if nothing happened, even when you don’t know what caused the problem. That’s why the System Restore feature is among the top things ex-Windows users want from Linux. Some go as far as proclaiming that Linux will never be as good as Windows because it lacks System Restore.

(Or as good as OS X because it lacks an equivalent to Time Machine, which was around long before Windows added System Restore.)

Those users should read the manual, or even better, this article, because today we’ll present the tools that bring System Restore functionality to Linux. True, they’re not always available by default, but neither is System Restore in Windows 10. You could also argue that they don’t behave exactly the same as their Windows counterpart, but then again, the way System Restore works changed between Windows versions.

Source: 10 Easy Ways to Restore Your Linux System (MakeUseOf)

With Snaps, Ubuntu 16.04 Makes App Updates Easier, Secure

One of the (few) sucky things about sticking with an Ubuntu LTS release is when newer versions of apps you love are released and you can’t install them.

Well, prepare to bid that pang of disappointment goodbye.

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS will come with support for Canonical’s (relatively new) Snap packaging format.

Snaps are the aspirin to the headache of dependency-addled app upgrades.

Source: With Snaps, Ubuntu 16.04 Makes App Updates Easier, Secure (OMG! Ubuntu!)
Related: Adding snaps for secure, transactional packages in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Ubuntu Insights)

12 Linux dd command examples – The Linux Juggernaut

The dd command stands for “data duplicator” and used for copying and converting data. It is very powerful low level utility of Linux which can do much more like;
• Backup and restore the entire hard disk or partition.
• Backup of MBR (Master Boot Record)
• It can copy and convert magnetic tape format, convert between ASCII and EBCDIC formats, swap bytes and can also convert lower case to upper case.
• It can also be used by Linux kernel make files to make boot images.

Source: 12 Linux dd command examples – The Linux Juggernaut

Fix a Missing Sidebar in Open & Save Dialog Windows of Mac OS X

Some Mac users have discovered the sidebar to be missing in the Open and Save dialog windows that appear throughout Mac OS X. Since the sidebar contains quick access links to various points in the file system, including user directory pictures, documents, the desktop, Macintosh HD, and tags, this can be frustrating and lead to a more difficult file opening and saving process.

Fortunately the missing sidebar in dialog windows is easy to fix, so follow along and you’ll have it back in no time at all.

Source: Fix a Missing Sidebar in Open & Save Dialog Windows of Mac OS X (OS X Daily)

Want to experiment with free or nearly-free energy? Here is a site for you!

Fancy yourself to be a modern-day Tesla? Or maybe you just want to read about others who have experimented with free, or nearly-free energy with varying degrees of success. Well, here is a site that probably contains everything you want to know, most of it in downloadable format:

Practical Guide to Free-Energy Devices

Now, I realize that there are people who claim we can’t have free energy because it violates some law of physics. But here is the thing, there are three categories of physics. There are the physics that we, the general public, know about (at least those of us who have taken classes in physics). Then there are the physics known only to people who work on “black projects” for various agencies around the globe, and maybe to a few very smart people who are willing to think outside the box but who probably get ridiculed when they try to share their knowledge publicly, because the world isn’t ready for them yet. And then there is the physics we haven’t discovered — yet! The latter might be what propels some of the strange objects in the sky that are often shown in YouTube UFO videos, at least the ones that aren’t CGI fakes (and there are plenty of those on YouTube, too).

(Please note I am NOT saying we are being visited by aliens. The reason they call them UFO’s is because the “U” stands for “unidentified”, meaning we don’t know where they come from or what they are. So, I am keeping an open mind on the subject. They may well be of earthly origin.)

There are many people who believe that we could have had free energy long ago, except that the corporations who make money selling us petroleum-based energy and other forms of at inflated prices would see their profits evaporate overnight. The problem is that until someone actually builds a production model free-energy device that can be installed in any home or vehicle, few will take the possibility seriously. It kind of reminds me of how many “learned scientists” said that heavier-than-air flight was impossible until the early experimenters such as the Wright Brothers proved they were wrong (and even then, many in the press thought their flights had been faked). It only took a decade or so after that for the military to be making use of airplanes, and for them to be used to carry commercial cargo. The point is that even after a technology is proven to work, some people simply will not accept it and will claim it is all smoke and mirrors, but once we get past that stage it can grow into a major industry. And there will always be casualties; the Zeppelin industry and to a lesser extent the railroads lost business once commercial flight took off (no pun intended), but that is progress. No business model survives forever, and for many people the sooner we no longer need to rely on petroleum-based energy, or a vulnerable grid of electrical transmission lines carrying energy across the continent, the better.

I don’t know which of these experimenters are actually onto something and which are just pursuing fanciful dreams, or worse yet, which are actively scamming investors. But I will just bet that there is someone out there who will soon change the world with an invention that will provide very cheap or free energy that can power every home and vehicle. That’s provided, of course, that they don’t have a tragic automobile accident or have some other unexpected calamity befall them, as unfortunately seems to happen on occasion, or that they don’t just seem to disappear off the face of the earth.

OpenShot 2.0.x Crowd Funded Video Editor Available for Ubuntu/Linux Mint – NoobsLab | Ubuntu/Linux News, Reviews, Tutorials, Apps

OpenShot video editor is an open-source video editor for Linux but also available for Windows and Mac, it is free and released under GNU GPL 3 license. Using OpenShot video editor you can create a film with your videos, photos, and audio tracks that you have always thought of. It lets you add transitions, effects, and sub-titles, and you can export to DVD, YouTube, Video, and many other common formats.

Source: OpenShot 2.0.x Crowd Funded Video Editor Available for Ubuntu/Linux Mint – NoobsLab