Adobe Photoshop has become the defacto photo editing program over the years. It is used just about everywhere, from household computers to reasearch supercomputers. You have probably wanted to get a copy of your own, but with the hefty price tag of 500+ dollars, it has probably made you think about your purchase twice. But have no fear, you don’t have to have a huge wallet to be able to do professional photo editing.

The Tools

The GIMP is a popular Open-Source image editor that consists of many picture manipulation tools, from blurring to artistic effects. However, some first-time users might find it’s interface too overwhelming. If you’re one of those users, consider trying Paint.Net, which is also a free, Open-Source image editing tool. It’s interface is really easy to use and it has all the tools you need for photo editing. You can also download thousands of user-created plugins here, andyou can also read and write Paint.Net tutorials here.

In the end, both Paint.Net and the GIMP are very high level image editing tools, but if you’re looking for a simple down-to-earth image editor, Paint.Net is the way to go. No Photoshop? No longer a problem.

Interesting story. Last week I went over a friends house, jumped in his pool. Not thinking, I had my expensive Motorola Q smartphone in my pocket. Great. Its broken. Well, thats what I thought. After much work taking it apart to each individual piece, putting them in rice (which absorbs moisture), and exposing that rice to a hot light– my phone is back alive. Well, for the most part. Thats where the Cellular Nationwide Network (CNN.CN) comes in!

I would love to share with all of you this great site! Anyone who as a partially broken phone or just wants to take a look at what parts they can easily get for their phone, check out CCN.CN for ALL of your cellphone / smartphone part needs! In ended up needing a new speakerphone. $5! Cheap! After very little wait, my phone is back in its original condition!

So, if you ever need a new part for your phone, dont really have a warranty, and want to save yourself a few hundred from buying a new one, then head on over to www.ccn.cn and find your phone parts (and tools)!

Cookies are great when they come right out of the oven, but after a few days they become stale and brittle.

By adding a slice of bread in the cookie jar a day after they have been cooked can preserve their delicious texture (and freshness). The cookies will absorb the moisture of the bread through the mighty powers of osmosis and stay fresh longer!

Bake some cookies or something, heres a great ninja recipe!

VirtualBox is a popular open-source application (a great alternative to VirtualMachine) that allows you to emulate another operating system install. It is compatible with many operating systems, however today we are focusing on it from the Linux point-of-view.

Have you installed a newer version of VirtualBox (for instance, a newer non-OSE version), and later realized you wanted to go back to VirtualBox-OSE?

Ive been reading on many forums, and from the looks of it many of us dont know how to get back to our old version, were seeing some kind of message that says (or something similar to):

Could not load the settings file ‘/home/USER/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml’ (VERR_OPEN_FAILED).
FATAL ERROR: Attribute ‘version’ has a value, ‘1.3-linux’, that does not match its #FIXED value, ‘1.2-linux’
Location: ‘/home/USER/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml’, line 5, column 83.

Wait, dont panic… please dont panic! Everything should be alright!

As long as you were sure to make a backup of your previous Virtualbox Machines.. this is all you need to do!

1. Remove all of your currently installed Virtualbox packages.
   Open a terminal and type: sudo apt-get remove virtualbox*
2. Hit the Y for yes and it will then remove all of your Virtualbox packages currently installed, dont panic! Then just to play it safe, type: sudo apt-get autoremove
3. Hit Y for yes again, and it will remove all of the unneeded packages (keep your computer clean of junk files).
4. Now, were going to install the OSE of Virtualbox, which is what we had before.
   Type: sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-modules-generic
5. Next…
   Type: sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
6. After that, restart your computer and your computer should recompile the headers. Once restarted, try launching Virtualbox by navigation to VirtualBox OSE in your Applications > System Tools menu, or ALT+F2 and type ‘virtualbox’.
7. Most likely, your going to get the error we quoted above. This error is your friend! Take note of the value it lists. For example, my error mentioned: “FATAL ERROR: Attribute ‘version’ has a value, ‘1.3-linux’, that does not match its #FIXED value, ‘1.2-linux’” We want to note the #FIXED value, so im going to remember “1.2-linux”. Also, note the location: “/home/USER/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml” (Replace USER with your account username). (Hit OK to close the dialog box)
8. Now, open a terminal and…
   Type: gedit /home/USER/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml
9. Gedit will open up with VirtualBox.xml. In this file, find where it says:
   “<VirtualBox xmlns=”http://www.innotek.de/VirtualBox-settings” version=”1.3-linux”>”
10. Replace the version with the #FIXED value we noted in Step #7. My new line looks like this:
    “<VirtualBox xmlns=”http://www.innotek.de/VirtualBox-settings” version=”1.2-linux”>”
11. Save the file! Almost done… exit Gedit and the terminal window. Open up Nautilus (the File Manager on GNOME) and navigate to: “/home/USER/.VirtualBox/Machines”.
12. Navigate to the folder of your choice. For example, my folder is titled: “Windows XP” (that is one of the Virtual OS’es I have installed). You will notice two files in this folder (maybe more). One ending in .xml, the other ending in .bak.xml-Virtualbox-Version-Etc-Nonsense (not exactly, but you get the point!). Rename the .xml one to .xmlOLDNEW and rename the super long named one to end in .xml.
13. Your done! No longer face the error, your back where you wanted to be- using an openSource version of VirtualBox.

This should have done it all, if not, post your questions in the comments below (or ask on the Forums)!

This might turn into a rant, but in all honesty the only thing I am not too pleased about Linux is that not everyone else in the world is using it. Ok, that was enough venting. Lets get to the steak and potatoes of this tutorial!

So, you want your Linux to perform ultimately better than your previous (probably Windows) environment, and at the same time you want to sacrifice as little as possible. Linux seems to have a few “legal” problems with fonts in that aspect, so today were going to go beyond the “legal limits” and get Linux looking how it should. (With that said, most people design websites on Windows XP (or another OS), forget that most of the Linux-world doesn’t have the same fonts as them.

The specific fonts were talking about are: Franklin Gothic, Gautami, Kartika, Lucida Sans Unicode, Latha, Lucida Sans, Mangal, Marlett, Microsoft Sans Serif, MV Boli, Palatino Linotype, Raavi, Shruti, Sylfaen, Symbol, Tahoma, Tunga, and last but not least Wingdings.

Thats a whole lot of fonts us Tux-fans cant get access to.
Well, your wish is my command. I present to you the solution! (Brace yourselves… Its a tutorial!)

What You Will Need

• A Linux PC
  I am running Ubuntu 8.04 here. Just some Linux knowledge to apply the commands to your distribution if your not using the same one as me.
• Fonts Packedwithapunch Pack
  Thats the fonts pack I created with all of these wonderful fonts. Heck, I even gave it a fancy name!

The Steps

Hey, that was easy! Wheres that easy button again? Oh.. here it is!

1. First, go download my Fonts Packedwithapunch Pack. Open up a terminal (ALT+F2) and type “gnome-terminal” or what ever terminal app you use. Xterm? Hey thats a nice one!
2. Type in: “wget http://img.tutorialninjas.net/java-fontspwapp.tar.bz”. (Without quotes) Then hit Enter.
3. Next, type: “tar -xjf java-fontspwapp.tar.bz” Then hit enter.
   PS. I hope your catching on. Don’t type the quotes, only whats inside of them!
4. Make a directory to copy those fonts.
   Type: “sudo mkdir /usr/share/fonts/truetype/pwap”
5. Now copy the fonts to your usr/share!
   Type: “sudo cp -v java-fontspwapp/* /usr/share/fonts/truetype/pwap/”
6. Now that the fonts are copied, lets refresh the font caches!
   Type: “sudo fc-cache -f -v”
7. Once it finishes, your all done! I would reccomend for your own good to do a quick X restart. Do this by holding CTRL + ALT + BACKSPACE. Now your good to go!

Other Information

Ok ok ok, I know that smart-guy is going to come here and post: “Hey, there is a total easier way to install Windows fonts on Linux. Ok, before you say that– read the fonts I listed above and then think about saying that again. Raavi was not a font distributed under GPL- OK?!”

By the way, this tutorial is for Educational purposes only.

Comments? Questions? Anything else you want to say about this post? Let us know in the comments below.
…Hey that rhymed! Pretty flippin sweet for a ninja if you ask me!

If you have been wonding how to make your own HTML web pages, then you came to the right place! A HTML document is a computer language devised to allow website creation. These websites can then be viewed by anyone else connected to the internet. It is easy to learn, with the basics being accessible to most people in one sitting and quite powerful in what it allows you to create.

The Basics

1. If on Windows, open up Notepad. If on Mac, pen up Textedit.
2. Start off your webpage by typing: <html>
3. Next, give your page a title. For example, type: <title>My Ninja Homepage</title>
4. Now, include a header. Use the <head> and </head> tags. In between both of those tags, include javascripts and other fun scripts you want to add to your page. (More info below)
5. Finally, your ready to include the body of your page. Type <body> and then include all of the information your site will display. Once finished, end it with </body>.
6. Whoa! Not so fast! Almost done- just finish your whole webpage with </html>.
7. After you make you text you can play around with pictures. I will give you these codes below.
8. Now you have your site when you save it save it as “index.html” (or anything else .html)
9. Go find a web hosting provider and upload your files there!

Your done! And hopefully youve made a beautiful website. First try not too shabby?
Check out The Complete HTML Referencing Guide for more HTML tags.

For even more information, check out our even-more lengthy HTML tutorial.