Application-Specific Notes
Playing MIDI Files with TiMidity
The MIDI Software Synthesis How-To page from the Ubuntu help site has a detailed explanation of how to install TiMidity to play MIDI files. I have the following additional comments:The freepats package is now included in the timidity package. However, it's an incomplete sample set; in my opinion the patches-eaw package is a much better set. I followed the instructions in the article regarding downloading and configuring the patches-eaw package. I chose to download the .deb file and install rather than enabling an additional repository.
By default, TiMidity is a command-line program with no user interface. In addition to the instructions in the article, I installed the package timidity-interfaces-extra to enable a choice of several GUIs.
Checking Ink Levels on an HP Inkjet Printer
I have a HP inkjet printer and my Ubuntu installation automatically installed package hplip to support the printer. This package provides several command line tools and "a GUI toolbox to access all of these functions in a friendly way." The GUI toolbox doesn't work for me (from the postings I've read it doesn't work for anyone else, either) so I run the commands from the command line.The commands are located in /usr/bin/ and all start with hp-. These commands don't have man pages but each command has built-in help using the options -h or --help. The most useful to me is hp-levels (to check ink levels) but there are other commands to clean and align cartridges, etc.
Making CD/DVD Covers with cdlabelgen/GTK CD Label
The best solution I've found for creating CD and DVD covers uses a combination of cdlabelgen and GTK CD Label.Disabling the KOrganizer Reminder
Although I use Ubuntu (GNOME), I'm running the KDE calendar program KOrganizer (I couldn't find any other acceptable program for my "to-do" list). In general, the program runs fine in Ubuntu; however, without KDE there's no obvious way to disable the reminder daemon (which I didn't want).The solution was to move the file korgac.desktop out of the directory /usr/share/autostart.