Back from the Abyss!

OMG! Where do i start, 4 years almost since my last addition to this blog!
Soooo many things had taken me away from not only my blog, but from so many of my other hobbies/work etc.
i unfortunately had to work with windows for the last few years but earlier this year, i bit the bullet and reinstalled mint (Mate) as I was no longer tied to having to use windows.

Since reinstalling mint, i have decided to actually take my time and actually dig deeper into Linux as a whole because whenever i had used it before, i always felt lost when it came to things like how the file structure was laid out properly which really confused me, but also the terminal commands etc.

I honestly don't know what i will be adding to this blog as time goes on, as pretty much most things can be found on YouTube or a quick google search.

I suppose i could add things that I fathom out that seem to be non straight forward on how to install for instance (ie Oracle Java as I always struggled with setting that up properly in the past) so if you have any suggestions, please let me know what I can do to make this blog more interesting.

many thanks to any who still manage to find this blog.

Health and other things.

Hi Guys,

I know its way too long since I did anything here, but as in my previous post I have had health issues which culminated in me having a heart attack earlier this year :(

I have reinstalled Linux Mint 18 recently and finally finished off my very first Android app (YAY!) so please feel free to try it out for yourselves. It is aimed at any age range with different control methods and difficulty levels.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theJClan.SupawDog&hl=en

Many thanks,


Mark.

I'm still here.

Hi guys,

Sorry for not being active on here but unfortunately I have had a few health issues but I am on my way back, so all being well more interesting posts will resume.

Apologies again.

Mark.

Take control of your recent history.

Was trying to find a way of clearing my recent items list on my desktop earlier as certain items I do not want anyone to see (important documents etc) and I couldn't find anywhere in Cinnamon to easily delete the list.
After a short search on-line where there were plenty of 'edit this file' 'do this, then this, then that' posts, but I finally came across a simple GUI app that does it easily (as I prefer simple rather than manually editing files I have no real idea where they are or what implications might arise if I edit them wrong etc.

Simply open a terminal and enter: sudo apt-get install activity-log-manager

Once installed it is under the Accessories tab and allows you to exclude certain types of files or turn it off altogether :)

Hope that helps anyone else who would prefer not to have a recent files list easily available to anyone else who might just need to use your pc quickly or do not have their own user set-up.

Long Overdue Post!

It seems forever that I posted on my blog! I have not really done much exciting in Mint as I have just generally been 'using' my laptop without much need to delve into the depths of anything to overcome problems etc (Just goes to show just HOW GOOD Mint is!!!!)

My only gripe at the moment is nothing to do with Mint itself, but me getting to grips with how The Gimp works as I have for many years used Photoshop so trying to work out how the gimp workflow is different to photoshop. I have been struggling on various aspects of it but I am slowly plodding through it (to be honest I do still prefer the way photoshop does a lot of stuff).

So, apart from headbutting my laptop when the Gimp wont do what I want it to, i've been taking this year as it comes and experimenting with Android development recently which is quite cool even though the last time I coded anything in Java was in 2005!!!!!!!!!

SDL & OpendGL programming.

Just before we moved, I thought I would have a look at getting back into tinkering with C/C++ and decided to take the plunge and look into OpenGL in Linux.

Many years ago I did start programming in Linux using the SDL libraries and actually wrote a couple of editors for myself (Level editor for a 2D platform game and also an isometric level editor) but sadly are gone forever into the depths of unreadable backup DVD's etc!

This time I am going to use both SDL & OpenGL and see if I can get the brain cells upto scratch again and maybe knock up a little 2D game.

So far I have managed to get a very simple test program together that simply uses quads in 2D (basically sprites) and move and rotate them on the screen etc to get an idea of how things work in OpenGL.

With the house move, i've not had time to do any more but now things are settling down again, I will be trying to catch up with my coding.

I really do hope that I can do something worth showing as I love the Linux system and it's a shame a lot of companies don't even give it a 2nd glance which nowadays they certainly should!

Just need to come up with some ideas for a nice 2D game now lol!!! I'm a fan of the oldschool 8 bit platformers from the CBM 64 and Sinclair Spectrum era so thinking somewhere along those lines as a first attempt as jumping straight into full on 3D for me would be a bit too much to start with as seen as for now its simply a way to get back into programming.

Let me know if you would like me to post on here with more programming things as I know it's Linux based, but it's not really to do with Mint per say.

Mark.

Updating from 15 to 16 using apt

Hi guys,

Well, after too long missing I am finally back as we are now moved and to a degree settled into our new house (Phew!)

As in a previous post, I mentioned that I would be upgrading from 15 to 16 Cinnamon and would post a tutorial when I did.

I saw a post on G+ a while ago saying about updating without having to do a full reinstall via USB or DVD etc and did a search and to be honest, it turned out there is a guide on the Community.Linuxmint.com website.

It is for an older version of Mint, but in the comments there are posts from people who have updated from 15 to 16 and they tell you what to put in place etc, it really is that simple as the webpage says!

Here is the link to the page for anyone who hasn't updated yet and are wishing to try it:

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/62

It does take a while, and every now and then it asks for a Y/N response and I just kept typing Y (Even spotted a few places where it said certain files couldn't be found etc which worried me, but I carried on and it worked a treat! (Remember though, that this is done at your own risk and I would advise backing up your data first JUST in case!)

Mark.