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Scanlines in Inkscape

Scanlines are a very popular effect for modern websites and are based on the lines that are often visible when an image is viewed on a television screen. This is a simple guide for creating diagonal scanlines in Inkscape 0.47.

Start by opening the Inkscape document you want to add scanlines to. Turn on the grid overlay from the view menu or by pressing the hash key. Next zoom in until you can see each pixel – a zoom level of about 3000% usually works well. Find an empty area in the document measuring 6x6 pixels.

Using the rectangle tool create the following temporary pattern. Select the image and convert it to a pattern by going to "Object->Pattern->Objects to Pattern" or by pressing "Alt+I". You can now delete the temporary pattern.

Zoom back out and turn the grid overlay back off. You can now use the scanline pattern as a fill for any suitable shape. Select the shape, open the "Fill and Stroke" panel ("Ctrl+Shift+F") and choose Pattern as the Fill option. Select the scanline pattern from the drop down list.

You can tweak the opacity setting or the colour of the pattern to obtain a range of effects. This is just one example of how your scanlines may look.

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Installing fonts on Ubuntu 9.10

Ubuntu comes with a large selection of fonts pre-installed, with many more available from the package repositories. If you want to use a font that isn't in the repositories then, provided it's a TrueType font, you can install it manually.

First, check that your fonts are TrueType. This information should be available when you download the font. TrueType fonts normally have the ".ttf" file extension and will usually show a thumbnail preview on Ubuntu.

To install the font start by opening a file browser and ensuring that it is set to display hidden files, Next, navigate to your home directory. Check if you already have a directory called ".fonts". If you don't then you will need to create one.

You can now copy the fonts you want to install into the ".fonts" directory. In most cases they will automatically show up in your applications. If they don't then you can try regenerating the font cache or rebooting your system.

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Enabling surround sound on Ubuntu 9.10

Surround sound, on most systems, is supported out-of-the-box when using Ubuntu 9.10. However, you will need to enable it first, otherwise the system will only use stereo.

To enable surround sound right click on the panel icon for volume control and click on "Sound Preferences". Switch to the "Hardware" tab. Open the drop-down list for profiles and choose a suitable surround profile (for example, 5.1 surround). You can tweak the settings on the "Output" tab.

If you can't see a surround profile in the drop-down list then your card either isn't supported properly, doesn't support surround or hasn't been detected properly. In any case you can probably find help via the Ubuntu forums.

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Removing old or unwanted kernels from Ubuntu

If you install a kernel update in Ubuntu then the old version will usually be retained so that you can boot it if something goes wrong with the new kernel.

This approach is good for system recovery purposes but it can cause problems for users with limited disk space, such as netbook users. It can also result in a cluttered boot menu if you are using the standard automatically generated GRUB menu.

This guide explains how to uninstall old or unwanted kernels.

Warning

This process is potentially risky - you could accidentally delete a kernel you need and end up with an unbootable system. Only try this if you have limited disk space or a particularly cluttered automatically generated boot menu. If you do proceed then ensure that you backup before proceeding.

Determining which version to keep

The first step is to determine which version you want to keep. This is usually the latest version and, assuming you haven't changed the GRUB configuration (including menu.lst) or compiled custom kernels, the one you are running.

You can check which kernel you are running by going to "System->Administration->System Monitor" and choosing the "System" tab. In this example the kernel version is "2.6.31-15-generic".

Removing other versions

You can now remove the unwanted kernels by uninstalling the appropriate packages. This guide uses Synaptic, but other package managers should work fine.

Start Synaptic by going to "System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager". Click on the Search button and enter "linux-image-". You should then see a list of kernels. The ones with green squares are installed.

For each kernel you want to remove click on the green square next to it and choose "Mark for removal" from the list of options. Ensure that you don't remove the one you want to keep from above - you should have at least one "linux-image" still green when you've done.

If you want to free more space you can repeat the above process for the "linux-headers" package.

When you're certain you have the right packages selected choose Apply. Review the list of changes and click OK.

The kernels will now be uninstalled. The GRUB menu should be automatically updated.

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How to rebuild the music library on the HTC TouchPro 2

Music playback capability is provided by the TouchFlo 3D interface shipped with the HTC TouchPro 2. The player is able to play music in several formats from internal storage and memory cards. However, the library can sometimes become out of sync with the music actually loaded on the device. This guide describes how to perform a full rebuild (rescan) of the music library.

Some of the common symptoms of an out of sync library are:

• Duplicate tracks/albums/artists
• Missing tracks/albums/artists
• Deleted tracks still showing

To perform a full library rebuild start by disabling TouchFlo 3D. You can do this by going to Settings->All Settings->Personal->Today and clearing the TouchFlo check box.

Next, go to the Start Menu and open the File Explorer. Navigate to the folder "\Application data\HTC\AudioManager_Eng" and then move the file called "AudioManager_Eng.vol" to your "My Documents" folder (this is so you can restore it later if something goes wrong).

Now, using the same method as before, re-enable TouchFlo 3D. Don't go to the Music tab yet – you need to soft reset your PDA. To do this press and hold the power button, then say "Yes" at the prompt. Wait 10 seconds then press the power button again to switch the device back on.

After the usual startup sequence you can go to the Music tab. It should display the message "Scanning". This may take some time. Eventually you should have a fully in-sync music library.