OpenOffice.org spell check does not work!

When installing Ubuntu, I choose the default language to be "English (India)" and apparently OpenOffice.org does not have a dictionary for "English (India)" and as a result the Spell check does not detect any errors!
Weird isn't it? How different is English (India) from English (USA) or English (UK) (apart from Slangs, of course). I wish if possible, I could create a dictionary myself..Need to find out how to do that...
However, a simple solution to this problem, is to make OpenOffice.org Writer to use English (USA) or English (UK); I choose English (USA) (no particular reason to do so).

Open the OpenOffice.org Writer, Tools -> Options -> Language Settings -> Languages .
The right pane should show:
Default languages for documents -> Western

Choose "English (USA)" and you should see a small "ABC tick mark" beside the option. Click "Ok" and now you should be able to do "Spell Check" the document. :)

Ubuntu Pocket Guide; e-book downloadable for free!

These days, I've been following the different Ubuntu developers' posts Via. Planet Ubuntu.
and if not all, most of the posts have taught me something new about Ubuntu, Linux and Windows ;)
A couple of posts referred to the Ubuntu Pocket Guide and I decided to check it out and was very happy to know that it can be downloaded for free and re-distributable (of course, the un-modified format :) ).
I'd say, this is definitely a book for any one who wants to try something different (read, Windows and Mac users :p ). I am gonna pass this book around and see if I can influence at least a couple of my acquaintances to use Ubuntu :D
I should also say, this is not a book for power users, well, power users do not need any books ;)

Download the book!

Ubuntu Intrepid and Cairo dock

Although, cairo-dock was available in Ubuntu Intrepid repositories, this document suggests installing it using the below entry in /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://repository.cairo-dock.org/ubuntu intrepid cairo-dock

and so I did and I love it.

Isn't this a new way to look at the so called and boring "Start" button :p

However, the problem was that the cairo-dock did not launch itself automatically after my login!
I had to launch Alt+F2 and type in cairo-dock every time

I have read about Upstart earlier and tried if that would work and before I could finish making it work( now, I do not know if that would have worked :( ), I have discovered a better way to get it working

Here are the steps:
1. Main Menu -> System -> Preferences -> Sessions
Or
Alt+F2 and run "gnome-session-properties"

2. Click the "Add" button and look into the image here for the details to fill in.
3. Logout and Login and valla! Cairo-dock launched automatically after login :)

Ubuntu apparel

I've been for quite some time now wanted to get myself a Ubuntu T-shirt and was looking for ways to order it over to India.
One of my friends was returning from the U.S. this Jan and so decided to have him order it for me :)
And...guess what?? I went to office last week sporting my Ubuntu T-shirt and Ubuntu hoody :)
Check out the Ubuntu store for yourself!

Upgrade to Intrepid Ibex

Yesterday over the night, I upgraded from Ubuntu Hardy to Intrepid. I know Hardy is LTS, but them I've been reading again and again that Intrepid is quick and very fast, I decided to upgrade to Intrepid. Though, I already have a test machine with Intrepid at my work place, I initially was against upgrading to Intrepid as Hardy was an LTS. Anyway, now that I've upgraded my PC @ home to Intrepid, I could not have been happier.
The upgrade as it is was quite easier, and man...Nautilus, Gnome and boot up and shutdown was so fast, I could actually quickly differentiate the speed compared to Hardy!

I've been running Intrepid on a VM on my PC and now I'll have it upgraded to Jaunty Jackalope! (Ubuntu 9.04)
There is a small glitch, troubling me; after the upgrade, the Network Manager icon shows disconnected (where in fact, actually I was totally connected to the Internet). This could be because of my entries in /etc/network/interfaces (as I run my VM over QEMU)
I'm reading through the forums and launchpad bugs to resolve this ASAP.