W520 how to enable the mic (internal and external) in Ubuntu

My microphone was not working out of the box on my lenovo w520 laptop.

I looked al over the internet for solutions. Adding stuff to alsa-base.conf appeared to have worked for some people but never worked for me.

However, this solution worked for me :

type  :  wget -O run.py http://www.alsa-project.org/hda-analyzer.py
run : sudo python run.py , a window should open
Go to Node[0x14] AUD_IN
open a sound recorder session then press record.
Then play with the mute checkboxes while talking. For me it was the 5th one that worked.

Hope it helps. 

Google maps for iOS

Apple just lost a battle against android/Google today.

After an unsuccessful release of their map app earlier this year and a couple of people fired, they dropped the towel by allowing Google maps on the app store.

Guess 12/12/12 really meant the end of the world for someone.
More here :
http://googleblog.blogspot.ca/2012/12/google-maps-is-now-available-for-iphone.html

git tip of the day

To start a branch from a previous commit :

git branch branchname 

or by using a symbolic ref.

git branch branchname HEAD~3

source : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2816715/branch-from-a-previous-commit-using-git

git tip of the week

git tip of the week

See a list of files changed in a commit

git diff-tree --name-only -r 

How to Install Adobe AIR on Ubuntu 12.04

Really useful link if you want to install adobe air on your ubuntu 12.04 or later.


How to Install Adobe AIR on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin

W520 ubuntu tip learn

So today was the first day I used my laptop without external screen on ubuntu 12.04 .

Screen brigthness was way too bright and realized I couldn't adijust it with tthe Fn keys.

So here's my tip of the week.

To enable Fn key brightness on your ubuntu 12.04 lenovo laptop add the following line in the Device section of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf



 Option         "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"


Hope it fixes your problem !