Notes for my talk @ FOSS for Journalists

I have to deliver a speech at FOSS for Journalists conference organized by ICTA (www.icta.lk). Since I felt this may be useful for a larger audience, I thought of having my notes on my blog.

FOSS Applications

Useful Links

1. http://www.osalt.com/
   
2. http://www.linuxalt.com/
   
3. http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Linux_software_equivalent_to_Windows_software
   
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_alternatives_to_proprietary_software
   
5. http://www.foss4gov.gov.lk/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=17
   

Getting/Intalling new Software

• Synaptic, Download and install new software
  
• GDebi, Install downloaded packages
  
• DownThemAll!, Download manager
  

Internet Browser

• Firefox
  
• Chromium
  

Playing Music & Video

• Rhythmbox
• Banshee
• Movie Player
  
• VLC

Burning CDs & DVDs

• Brasero
  

Taking Notes

• Gedit
  
• LeafPad
  

Word Processor

• LibreOffice Writer
  
• Openoffice.org Writer
  

Spread Sheet

• LibreOffice Calc
  
• Openoffice.org Calc
  

Presentation

• LibreOffice Impress
  
• Openoffice.org Impress
  

Image Viewer & Editor

• Eye of GNOME
  
• Gimp
  
• GimpShop
  
• Inkscape
  

Internet Messaging and Video Conferencing

• Pidgin
  
• Ekiga
  

Simple Publishing

• LibreOffice Draw
  
• Openoffice.org Draw
  
• Evince, PDF/PS reader
  
• LibreOffice/Openoffice.org, PDF creation
  
• Print to PDF
  

News Reader & Podcast Client

• Firefox
• Yarssr
• Rhythmbox

Blogging, Micro Blogging, and Social Media

• Any Web Browser
• http://www.blogger.com, http://wordpress.com/
• http://www.flickr.com/, http://youtube.com, http://facebook.com
• Gwibber
  

Recovering data from a corrupted pen drive

My wife complained that one of her pen drives stop working and the OS doesn't recognize it any more.

When I check the device I realized that it doesn't have a partition table any more. May be the device is failing. So I quickly create an image of the whole device using dd.

sudo dd if=/dev/sdc of=pendrive.img

I tried fsck.vfat on the image without any luck. Then I found this article. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15761/recover-data-like-a-forensics-expert-using-an-ubuntu-live-cd/

The magical tools are, testdisk, photorec, and foremost. Very importantly it all comes FREE with Linux.

I manage to recover most of her important files with these tools. Many thanks to the creators of these software!