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Google makes the really neat program Picasa 3 for managing and editing photo/image collections. Since Microsoft Windows it a travesty and I therefore use Linux as much as possible, I was in need of a better and more stable photo management software to replace the buggy unstable F-Spot program. To my glee I found that Google releases a Debian version suitable for using under Ubuntu’s flavor of Debian Linux. I love you Google. Anyway, it was still a 2-step process, which would frighten most Windows users, but this bit of work in the beginning assures that I am using reputable sources for software that can be installed without visiting a website or downloading anything from a web server, as I would have to do if using Windows. Not to mention that by being forced to the wild web in order to download all applications and software just opens up a computer to problems because the user must decide which software makers to trust, not a good situation for casual users who aren’t in touch enough with the current “scene” to be able to make an educated decision about which company’s software is trustworthy and which are not. Alas, I digress…

To install Picasa on Ubuntu:

1. Create a backup copy of your file: /etc/apt/sources.list
2. Edit /etc/apt/sources.list using “sudo” and the editor of your choice e.g. vi, vim, gedit.
3. Add the following line:
   deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ testing non-free
4. Save the file.
5. Update apt-get’s repository list using: sudo apt-get update
6. Try to install Picasa now: sudo apt-get install picasa
7. If it installs, then Hooray! You’re done! However, if you get an error like the following, then proceed to the next steps:
   W: GPG error: The following signatures couldn’t be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 1234567890123456
   W: There is no public key available for the following key IDs:  1234567890123456
8. The long number will be different for you, and you’ll need it for the next step.
9. Run the following commands, substituting 1234567890123456 with the number from your error messages:
   gpg –keyserver pgpkeys.mit.edu –recv-key  1234567890123456
   gpg -a –export 1234567890123456 | sudo apt-key add –
10. Assuming that you get success, and you should as long as there’s no typos, try again to install Picasa directly with Ubuntu apt-get:
    sudo apt-get install picasa
11. Picasa will download and install, you may be required to verify that process before it proceeds, though.

Check put these for a bit more info, and the source of the steps needed for this process:
[Debian] Apt-get : NO_PUBKEY / GPG error
Howto Install Picasa 3.5 in ubuntu

Posted under Freeware, Graphic, Linux, Software

Microsoft makes manual download of update files easily accessible at this link:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=70631

This will download a file called Mpas-fe.exe
Try to save the file in a location that you can get to easily with a command prompt. (ie. C:\ )
Then, open a command prompt and run the program using the -q switch. It looks like this:

Mpas-fe.exe -q

The program will run quickly, and won’t give you any kind of confirmation that it has run or finished.

Open the Microsoft Windows Defender window to see what date your definition files have. This is how you can be sure that the update was successful.

IMPORTANT: The above info applies ONLY to 32-bit Operating Systems. For those of you using 64-bit platforms, see the full scoop here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923159 

Posted under Freeware, Microsoft

Using the yum command line usility:

yum -y –enablerepo=development update firefox

(there are two dashes preceding “enablerepo”)

When I used this line I got some transaction check failures thet looked something like:

file /usr/share/pkgconfig/gnome-doc-utils.pc from install of gnome-doc-utils-stylesheets-0.12.0-1.fc8 conflicts with file from package gnome-doc-utils-0.8.0-2.fc6

To fix this, I did the following:

yum -y –enablerepo=development update gnome-doc-utils

This updated the necessary packages, then I re-ran:

yum -y –enablerepo=development update firefox

Success!

Posted under Browsers, Freeware, Linux