My setup is quite flexible. I’ve got two desktops and one laptop sharing one monitor. The two desktops are connected via KVM to a display. That display has two inputs, so my laptop is also connected to the same monitor as an extended desktop. I have two methods of selecting inputs to the monitor : a button on the front and the KVM control via keyboard.

This kind of flexibility really speeds up and streamlines my music production and progress on Sample Of The Day. I am able to be blogging and editing audio on one display, while on the other I can have Propellerhead’s Reason making loops and free audio samples using the software synthesizers.

1. Miro – instant access to recorded video from internet sources such as Google Video, YouTube, etc. Formerly known as DemocracyTV player, this gets you relevant video news in an instant.
2. Transkode – transKode I use to convert my OGG and FLAC files to MP3 for use on my Rio Carbon. This might not be as essential for everyone else, but there’s definitely some divergence as far as the best convertor, and I really think transKode needs the recognition it deserves for expertly accomplishing such a task.
3. amarok – It’s better than kaffeine. It’s a little slow, but is completely feature packed. It’s able to get ID3 tag info from MusicBrainz, for example is a feature which I have really been enjoying.
4. kmymoney – If you need to keep up with your money on something other than your bank’s page, this is a great, free way to do it. It is an excellent open source alternative to the major commercial software, which has become more of a marketing vehicle for other products.
5. inkscape – a scalable vector graphics editor. Use this program to draw using vector graphics, Inkscape is much more than a bitmap editor. If you’re familiar with Macromedia/Adobe Fireworks, then you’ll have an easy transition into Inkscape. While the interface is not identical, much of the concepts are the same.
6. ksquirrel – a quicker replacement for the included GwenView. I find GwenView notoriously slow, so I choose ksquirrel instead.
7. BasKet note pads – Integrates into Kontact, and allows you to work with notepads. I consider this an awesome alternative to Microsoft’s OneNote application. It’s superior to kNotes or even Tomboy.
8. Tellico – If you’ve got a collection of anything, and want to track that collection’s information, this is the best software to use for documenting that collection.
9. Quanta+ is an impeccable Web Development suite. It features integrated real time previews, syntax highlighting for several different languages, project management, and templates.
10. AllTray is there for you when you want to iconize a piece of software. I’ll use it to remove clutter caused by the bittornado windows.
11. Moblock is this issue’s bonus. It’s just good layer of protection to keep your computer away from remote prying eyes.
12. XSane is great for the ability to perfectly scan. It seems to be an often overlook function during conversations, however if you have a need to scan from paper sources, this program does a bang up job.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the Ubuntu repositories, so I had to compile it. However, it was a lot easier than I had anticipated. I did have to compile one dependency, Taglib, and that was even easier.

Here’s the break down of the steps I went through, including taglib.

change to the folder where transkode was downloaded

cd /home/vmadmin/Downloads/transkode-0.7beta/

run the program to extract transkode. i used arK because it was easier than looking at a man page. i opened konquer in the current window using

konqueror $PWD&

change to source folder

cd transkode/

configure the setup

./configure

make the components

make

install the app

sudo make install

cleanup the source directory

make clean

download taglib

change to download folder

uncompress taglib

tar xzf taglib-1.4.tar.gz

change to the source folder

cd taglib-1.4/

configure the setup

./configure

make the components

make

install the components

sudo make install

cleanup

make clean

remove anything left behind

rm -f -R transkode-0.7beta/
rm -f -R taglib-1.4/


cd . && make -f admin/Makefile.common configure
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/vmadmin/Downloads/soundkonverter-0.3.4'
Can't open configure: No such file or directory.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/vmadmin/Downloads/soundkonverter-0.3.4'
/bin/bash ./config.status --recheck
running CONFIG_SHELL=/bin/bash /bin/bash ./configure --no-create --no-recursion
/bin/bash: ./configure: No such file or directory
make: *** [config.status] Error 127

Well, I gave up and did it an easier way:

I downloaded the .deb from KDE-Apps and am relieved. After right clicking on the .deb and selecting to install the package, it complained I needed a couple of other packages. I was able to install those through the Adept Package Manger GUI interface and then soundKonverter finally installed.

It’s running rather smoothly and creating nice output. Give it a try for yourself.

Version 1.3 is available for install via the Ubuntu repositories using

sudo apt-get install tunapie

I suggest installing it first, and then upgrading to v2.0

To do that, download the tarball from SourceForge and then extract it.

From the shell’s prompt in the downloaded folder, issue the following commands to finish the upgrade:

sudo sh install.sh --adult
sudo cp tunapie /usr/bin/tunapie


You’ll then find it in the Multimedia folder on your menu.