A darker Firefox

With all the rage that is being going on with dark themes, for instance: 10 Beautiful Themes for Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex, one things I really hate about using them, is that the default website looks like a window onto a totally different planet, most of them are white.

That was the main reason I haven't settle for a darker theme until now, but, by pure chance I found out that pressing the key combo Windows + n, you turn onto a negative the whole Firefox window.
The problem, of course, is that all the images on the window show up as a negative too... (I'm thinking on a way of dealing with that...)

Updates dujour

Another set, this time, skipped the Intel X server, because I don't have that one on my Tango.

What a drag, a Nautilus drag

One thing I really hate about Nautilus is when dragging a thing, say, a jpg file, onto a directory, you hover on a link on the Side Panel, and the the Nautilus thinks that you want to copy that file there...

Power Shift (once again)

Or, a new Synergy setup.
Actually, it is basically the same as before, but now the server is Tango, and the client is Thor.
There is not much to report really, everything seems to be working exactly the same on both boxes, even tho the roles have changed.

This is the config file (I case I blew it again):

## -----------------------------------------------
## synergy.conf from tango
## -----------------------------------------------

section: screens
        thor.arenales.lan:
        switchCorners = none
        switchCornerSize = 0

        tango:
        switchCorners = none
        switchCornerSize = 0
end

section: links
        thor.arenales.lan:
                left = tango

        tango:
                right = thor.arenales.lan
end

section: options
        screenSaverSync                        = true
        switchDelay                            = 500
        keystroke(shift+control+right)         = switchToScreen(thor.arenales.lan)
        keystroke(shift+control+left)          = switchToScreen(tango)
end
# EoF #

The current setup

Haven't post a picture of the family on a while, so here they are... And they are together, once again, thanks to Synergy.

Music right now (18)

Once again, Belle and the Roller Coaster, man, this song is simply amazing!

Add a text message to the Gnome Panel

Say you want to add some kind of text to the Gnome Panel.
Found a way to do just that, after testing some other tip on how to customize the date/ clock appearance on the Panel.
The origins of this was this post on the Ubuntu Forums, although I'm pretty sure to any other (recent) Gnome out there.

If you want it right besides the clock, do this:
Open the gconf-editor, type the keys:

Alt + F2

Then type inside the box:

gconf-editor (ENTER)

Goto, or expand the key:
'/apps/panel/applets/clock_screen0/prefs/custom_format'

Set it like this, or what ever you like it:

'tango - %a %d %b %H:%M' (without quotes)

On my case, 'tango' is the hostname of my box.

And then, set the format key to 'custom', it is below the 'custom_format' one.
There might be a why of doing this via the hostname command? Not sure, will try later.

Presto.

Used this as a base: Cambiar aspecto del reloj en Ubuntu, it is in Spanish, tho.

Another kernel update, same problems

Another kernel update today...
I still have the same problem than with the last kernel update, I can't use it, since it still throws a kernel panic upon booting.

Tango's xorg.conf file

There is not much of a difference with the one that Orbis Tertius is using (except refresh rates) the main difference is that this one does not have a specific resolutions declared, but the "nvidia-auto-select +0+0".

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver          "kbd"
        Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
        Option          "XkbModel"      "pc105"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "us"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "CorePointer"
## -----------------------------------------------
        Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "yes"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
## -----------------------------------------------
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"
        Driver          "synaptics"
        Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
        Option          "Protocol"              "auto-dev"
        Option          "HorizEdgeScroll"       "0"
EndSection


Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
        Driver          "nvidia"
        Option          "NoLogo"        "False"
## -----------------------------------------------
        VendorName      "NVIDIA Corporation"
        BoardName       "GeForce 7000M / nForce 610M"
## -----------------------------------------------
EndSection


Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Configured Monitor"
## -----------------------------------------------
        VendorName      "Unknown"
        ModelName       "AUO"
        HorizSync       30.0 - 75.0
        VertRefresh     60.0
        Option          "DPMS"
## -----------------------------------------------
EndSection


Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Monitor         "Configured Monitor"
        Device          "Configured Video Device"
        Defaultdepth    24
## -----------------------------
        Option          "TwinView"      "0"
        Option          "metamodes"     "nvidia-auto-select +0+0"

        SubSection      "Display"
                Depth   24
        EndSubSection
## -----------------------------
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "Default Layout"
  screen "Default Screen"
        Inputdevice     "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection


Section "Module"
        Load            "glx"
## -----------------------------------------------
        Load            "dbe"
        Load            "extmod"
        Load            "type1"
        Load            "freetype"
## -----------------------------------------------
EndSection


Section "ServerFlags"
        Option          "Xinerama"      "0"
EndSection


Section "Files"
        RgbPath         "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
EndSection


# EoF #

The current Ubuntu desktop

Nothing much changed since the last one, I'm pretty much happy with Human Tiger & the cool brown wallpaper, but this desktop includes the Ubuntu's version of the Dashboard Widget, the Screenlets!

Drunken weatherman

Or someone might have light a fire around the sensor towards 12 AM last night.

Music right now (17)

Josh Rouse - Dressed Up Like Nebraska - Reminiscent

With a gray existance
It doesn't feel like saturday
Unfinished business
We used to talk
Lately it's been
Reminiscent of me
Reminiscent of me

Even open hands
My questions dear
Touch my hand
It's ok
Cause it's all I have
This persistance
And it keeps the sad
Days away
Reminiscent of me
Reminiscent of me

You make it easy
To stay at home
Don't you know
It's so easy
To stay at home
Don't you know

Evolution crash (2)

I "think" I found out why of the crash...

It seems rather strange, or far fetched, but, I guess its because I'm pasting text onto Evolution thru Synergy, coming from Thor...

I mean, I haven't had a crash since the day I posted that one, and I was using Synergy, and doing the same thing.

One thing that I can test is, now that I can switch things around, and use Tango as the Synergy server (I use Synergy tunneled thru SSH, no matter what), see if the crash happens on Evolution that way too (perhaps this time it will happen on iCal :P ).

Music right now (16)

(Another one for Patti, god damn it!)

Patti Smith - Dream of life - The Jackson song

Little blue dreamer go to sleep
Let's close our eyes and call the deep
slumbering land that just begins
When day is done and little dreamers spin

First take my hand now let it go
Little blue boy you're on your own
Little blue wings as those feet fly
Little blue shoes that walk across the sky

May your path be your own
But I'm with you
And each day you'll grow
He'll be there too
And someday when you go
We'll follow you
As you go, as you go

Little blue star that offers light
Little blue bird that offers flight
Little blue path where those feet fall
Little blue dreamer won't you dream it all

Refrain

And in your travels you will see
Warrior wings remember Daddy
And if a mama bird you see
Folding her wings will you remember me
As you go, as you go
As you go, as you go

A refreshing start

(of the week)

This was a total surprise, apparently, it was going to rain tomorrow, and, as usual, bring some cool for 15 minutes or so.
But, lucky me, we had a huge drop last night.

Touchpad to music

The Compaq F700 has a very cool way of disabling the touchpad, a thing I do most of the time, because I simply hate it, and I work way faster with a regular mouse.

I found that there is a little bug on Hardy, when you enable the touchpad, after turning it off, that also launches Rhythmbox, this only happens if you disable the touchpad using the button, if you disable/ enable it thru "System -> Preferences -> Mouse -> Touchpad" it doesn't happen.

Ring Switcher & Compiz multiplicity (II)

A little sort of heads up on this "Ring Switcher + Evolution multiplicity".

Found out that the same thing happens on the all other window circling plugins that Compiz has, specifically, I mean on these: "Application Switcher", "Ring Switcher" (doh!) & "Shift Switcher"; all of those show those little pesky "Alarms" window (or windows) when circling thru the other opened Windows on your box.

Also (to put sort of a scientific patina to this whole thing :p ) I have found is that:

- The "Alarms" window show up only if the Evolution "main" window is minimized.
- If you disable the "circling thru minimized windows" the "Alarms" window don't show up.

This is cool, a solution of sorts...
But, it really throws the whole purpose of a window switcher, I mean, if you cannot switch to only the windows which are not minimized; yeah, it could be nice to be able to do, after being able to switch to any of the opened windows as well.

Another thing I came across is another pesky window, this one called "Add signature script", it is really tiny, it looks like the same icon from the "Alarms", but without escalation.
It is the tiny, tiny icon inside the yellow box on the screenshot.

Vanishing plugin

On Thursday had to disable the Desktop Effects for a while to test something; not much problem, went to:

"System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Visual Effects"

And clicked on "None", naturally the effects died right there.

The thing, after I'm done, when I wanted to enabled the effects once again, lo and behold, I wasn't able to start them up again, the screen flickered a few times, the window manager's borders vanished, but after all of that, I got the message "Desktop effects could not be enabled".

When I tried to execute compiz from a Terminal, got this:

esteban@tango:~$ compiz
Checking for Xgl: not present. 
Detected PCI ID for VGA: 00:12.0 0300: 10de:0533 (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: present. 
Checking for non power of two support: present. 
Checking for Composite extension: present. 
Comparing resolution (1280x800) to maximum 3D texture size (4096): Passed.
Checking for nVidia: present. 
Checking for FBConfig: present. 
Checking for Xgl: not present. 
/usr/bin/compiz.real (core) - Error: Could not acquire compositing manager selection on screen 0 display ":0.0"
/usr/bin/compiz.real (core) - Fatal: No manageable screens found on display :0.0

After Googling like a mad man (I wanted, most than any whooping effect I could use, my border-less windows back, dude!!!) found a script called "compiz-check" (excellent name, BTW); which checks if your system is able to run Compiz or not, and eventually, helps you to set it up (if you want to do such thing).

Executed it on my beloved Tango, and got this:

esteban@tango:~$ ./compiz-check
Gathering information about your system...

 Distribution:          Ubuntu 8.04
 Desktop environment:   GNOME
 Graphics chip:         nVidia Corporation GeForce 7000M (rev a2) (rev a2)
 Driver in use:         nvidia
 Rendering method:      Nvidia

Checking if it's possible to run Compiz on your system...

 Checking for texture_from_pixmap...               [ OK ]
 Checking for non power of two support...          [ OK ]
 Checking for composite extension...               [ OK ]
 Checking for FBConfig...                          [ OK ]
 Checking for hardware/setup problems...           [FAIL]

There has been (at least) one error detected with your setup:
 Error: Another compositing manager in use. 

Would you like to know more? (Y/n) y

 The default window manager of GNOME has its own compositing manager to
 provide basic desktop effects.
 If this one is in use, Compiz will not be able to run. 

Do you want to disable GNOME's compositing manager? (Y/n) y

After typing 'y' it seemed like the script simply hanged or crashed, and got my prompt back.
But, after executing:

compiz --replace ccp & emerald --replace &

I got all the Desktop Effects back and running smoothly.

But, after restaring X, and login back onto Gnome, the effects were gone once again, so, placed that onto a script, made it excutable, and then added the script to the "Startup Programs" on the "System -> Preferences -> Sessions" settings.

All is golden again.

Summer, take a bow

It is here, and it'll be with us until next March, to say the least.
Whenever you go, sweating you to the bone, sticking your b*lls with this damn humidity, and now, the toughest Sun I can remember.

So, say Hi, and enjoy it's staying, as it'll be long and a total piece of sh*t.

Brownbuntu

Some tests I did, trying to, I don't know, I guess "darken" the theme a bit, I mean, the Verdebuntu one.

Also, for what I have read, Ubuntu's next release will be a somber one too (in terms of the GUI colors or the tones).
And, I don't know, what can I say, I admit it, I do like the brown hues, I have no problem at all with Ubuntu's default theme (but a bit spiffied with Compiz effects and drop shadows everywhere!)

I really dig this one, the melange of browns and oranges (the Synaptic updater icon on the tray) looks rather cool.

The problem is the rest... The colors for the regular use, things like text editing, emails, etc, looks like crap, I mean like this Evolution screenshot, it is practically unusable, you can loose an eye after a day of reading emails like that.

The current Ubuntu desktop

It's back to brown for me, baby :D
Found the wallpaper here

Put a little fat onto the caret

I have what I should call a "thing" for mouse pointer shapes... ( link 1, link 2, link 3 ) I simply like them to be just the exact way I like them to be.

Found a way to customize that on firefox too, specially, the caret text cursor. You know, the little vertical bar that indicates where the next letter will appear when you are typing something.

With this your caret will get fatter and easier to see on the screen (well, at least on Firefoix' screen).

Making the caret more visible

Currently looking for a similar solution to do so on the Gnome desktop, globally.

Hoping for May

With the change of hour came the heat too.
F*ck I hate the summer, I wish it was May next year already.

Music right now (15)

Pixies - Bossanova - Dig for fire

Specially good for a effing hot day like today.




There is this old woman
she lives down the road
you can often find her
kneeling inside of her hole
and I often ask her
"Are you looking for the mother lode?"
huh?
no.
no my child, this is not my desire
and then she said

I'm digging for fire [4x]

There is this old man
who spent so much of his life sleeping
that he is able to keep awake for the rest of his years
he resides
on a beach
in a town
Where I am going to live
and I often ask him
"Are you looking for the mother lode?"
huh?
no.
No my child, this is not my desire
and then he said

I'm digging for fire [4x]

Verdebuntu (2)

More on the Verdebuntu "theme" or whatever.

Right now, these are the global settings I'm using at the moment:

- Human-Clearlooks is the theme
- Inverted is the window border (Not totally sure that its being used, since I'm using Emerald as the window manager... See below)
- Tangerine is the icon set
- Mac4Lin_Cursors is the cursor icon set.

The settings on the theme, to acess them go to:
"System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Customize -> Colors"

(That's a f*ckload of a path, man!)


- Windows:

background: a6db97
text: 184D13

- Input boxes:

background: b0d6ad
text: 096001

- Selected items:

background: 6db336
text: 096001

- Tooltips:

background: 66b01f
text: 096001

The settings on the Emerald theme, a very, very little modified version of the truly wonderful Human Tiger:

- Active window:

Text fill: 1E5019
Text outline: 94B291
Bottom outline: 0A270C

- Inactive window:

Text fill: 357E2F
Text outline: A6DB97

Update time for Trantor

Applied the Software Updates that I installed on Thor to Trantor.
No problems whatsoever.

As the summer comes rushing over

Yeah, wonderful, terrific.
In less than a month will be above 30, no doubt about it.

Apple, get you sh*t together, man

Of course -and to be honest, I was sort of expecting this- Apple simply gave a flying f*ck about the TZ Data update here on Argentina.

No, I don't mean the one we had last year, but the one we had today, October the 19th 2008.
Last year Apple had the excuse that the joke we have as government announced the change just a couple of days before doing it (real smart indeed), but this year Apple does not have an excuse, and specially so if you think that we even had a dress rehearsal (or something like that, it was more like a f*ck up actually, but who cares)

Amazing for a company that literally cuts your left ball for its products down here (wel... to be honest, actually, Apple per se has nothing to do with this...), but, you might expect that they will be kind enough of releasing a couple of MBs worth of an update for the folks here in Argentina.

Times they are a-changin'

The TZ Data change went well on all the Ubuntu & CentOS boxes, which was something to be expected actually, I would have been surprised if there were problems, after all we had 10 days of head start, something unbelievable.

Verdebuntu

A work in progress, yadda yadda yadda, I was a little bit tired of the grey, but not totally convinced to the green hue that I'm using for the color of the windows...
Some time I like it, and others reminds me of a little puppy diarrhea.

Sort of the distant cousin, or better yet, the European and refined cousin for this old matte. Or at least, I want to believe it is more refined than the old one... Probably, if a graphic designer sees this might have a heart attack.

Ahh, gOS, those were the days!!!

Ring Switcher & Compiz multiplicity

I noticed a strange thing using Compiz' Ring Switcher (I love it) and Evolution.

When you execute the Ring Switcher, and Evolution is open with appointments created -no matter the date-, a myriad of little windows show up as well (I believe, one for each appointment you have created), with the name of "Alarms" all of them, belonging to Evolution; if I choose any of them nothing happens, and they all disappear, as I can see if I use the Ring Switcher once again.
To switch to Evolution, I have to select its window specifically.

This is really weird, and specially since I hardly use any Evolution notification, I preffer to use Evolution's Calendar (and Apple's iCal for that matter) to work sort of as a Journal, so it mostly has entries that have already passed; and on the case of Evolution, I particularly set -all- the notification off when I create a new appointment, whether "in the past" or a week ahead.

The current Ubuntu desktop

Burn, baby, burn!

Wine Is Not an Emulator, but rips DVDs

Yesterday installed Wine on Tango with the sole purpouse of getting a better DVD rip than the one that DVD95 gave me.

I can't effing believe how easy is to setup and install Wine nowadays, well, at least, on Ubuntu. Last time I used it was around 2001, on Red Hat 7.1 or so, and it somehow a PITA to install and configure, and to get something up & running, well, getting Notepad to open was like National Holiday or something.

If someone would told me there that I would be ripping DVDs with Wine, 7 years from now.

Update time for Thor

Updates galore for the old babe, the latest Security Update, and the newest iTunes as well.
So far, everything seems to be working Ok.

The new iTunes seems to have a GUI that reminds me, when it doesn't have focus, to what UNO looks like.

The kernel dance got sour

Some problems with the latest kernel update (2.6.24-21-generic).
First of all, the USB problem is still there.
The other one, even tho they compile and install Ok, the Mad WiFi driver renders the system useless, it throws a kernel panic upon booting, and you have to use any of the other kernels (or the recovery mode) to actually boot the system.

DVD ripping misadventures

Tested a nice program to rip DVDs, a DVD Shrink clone for Linux, called DVD95.

Last night ripped an Iron Man DVD, the rip itself took a little longer than using DVD Shrink on Windows, but not much, maybe 5 minutes more (this is the same hardware after all, simply switching HDDs, but the same Tango).

The problem was with the ripped DVD, it ended up with no subtitles, and with an effing jitter and occasional freezing...

I'll look up to use DVD Shrink under Wine.

Tango dancing with a new kernel

A bunch of updates, including a new kernel and a new version of the NVIDIA driver.
So far, everything seems to be Ok.
Tomorrow I'll test if the problem with the USB & the suspend and hibernate is history.
Not to mention if the WiFi does work now... Pretty sure will have to recompile the driver for the new modules from this kernel.

Tango & Crash

Last night I had the strangest of errors on my Ubuntu laptop.
The whole file system become write only, I don't have the slightest clue why, it was turned on for 7 days, the load wasn't that high (downloaded a couple of Bit Torrents over the weekend), and no new kernel or strange updates installed (just the ones that Ubuntu released yesterday)

Had to reboot it to get it back to normal.

Discovered the problem when tried to make the daily rsync backup for the iTunes files from my Quicksilver to the laptop, when I got this error message:

Harmonic Lyrics.zip
     3735453 100%    2.92MB/s    0:00:01 (xfer#1, to-check=5956/5957)
rsync: mkstemp "/home/esteban/Music/.Harmonic Lyrics.zip.nrsYU4" failed: Read-only file system (30)
iTunes Library
    10409730 100%    6.22MB/s    0:00:01 (xfer#2, to-check=5955/5957)
iTunes Music Library.xml
     9629811 100%    6.21MB/s    0:00:01 (xfer#3, to-check=5954/5957)
iTunes Music/Iggy Pop/Iggy Pop & The Stooges - No fun.mp3
     6184086 100%    7.62MB/s    0:00:00 (xfer#4, to-check=4305/5957)
iTunes Music/The Ramones 1976-1991/06 - Ramones - End of the century - 1980/08-ramones-i_cant_make_it_on_time-rh.mp3
     4205268 100%    4.09MB/s    0:00:00 (xfer#5, to-check=1359/5957)
iTunes Music/The Ramones 1976-1991/06 - Ramones - End of the century - 1980/09-ramones-this_aint_havana-rh.mp3
     3957656 100%    3.22MB/s    0:00:01 (xfer#6, to-check=1358/5957)
rsync: mkstemp "/home/esteban/Music/.iTunes Library.VFVbKu" failed: Read-only file system (30)
rsync: mkstemp "/home/esteban/Music/.iTunes Music Library.xml.NxsRlW" failed: Read-only file system (30)
rsync: mkstemp "/home/esteban/Music/iTunes Music/Iggy Pop/.Iggy Pop & The Stooges - No fun.mp3.AU0nJo" failed: Read-only file system (30)
rsync: mkstemp "/home/esteban/Music/iTunes Music/The Ramones 1976-1991/06 - Ramones - End of the century - 1980/.08-ramones-i_cant_make_it_on_time-rh.mp3.TXyUmR" failed: Read-only file system (30)
rsync: mkstemp "/home/esteban/Music/iTunes Music/The Ramones 1976-1991/06 - Ramones - End of the century - 1980/.09-ramones-this_aint_havana-rh.mp3.SXADbk" failed: Read-only file system (30)

sent 8954741 bytes  received 88556 bytes  369114.16 bytes/sec
total size is 22799809274  speedup is 2521.18
rsync error: some files could not be transferred (code 23) at /SourceCache/rsync/rsync-35.2/rsync/main.c(992) [sender=2.6.9]

At the moment I was logged in on the console (Tango boots to a non graphical login, and I start Gnome via 'startx', never a problem with that either)
On the console I was logged it, tried to do a 'touch test.txt' & a 'sudo touch test.txt', both failed with the same read only file system error.
That's when I rebooted, after that, and to this moment (being on all night, with Evolution open, and watched a movie on it)
It the HDD that is effing with me? It is brand new...

Looking for clues on the /var/log/messages file, found this entry:

Oct 14 00:09:16 tango kernel: [682988.488445] SysRq : HELP : loglevel0-8 reBoot Crashdump tErm Full kIll saK showMem Nice powerOff showPc show-all-timers(Q) unRaw Sync showTasks Unmount shoW-blocked-tasks 

Googling a bit for it looks like I might have enabled a SysRQ keyboard combo that had turned the whole file system read only, that's the only explanation I can come up with at the moment.

Linux is fun for me

Nice, cold day (for Spring)

We had a pretty decent weather today, cold, some wind, and it even a little rain during the morning.

Of course, this weather might have been a effing piece of sh*t to all the people whoe left the city during the 3 day weekend, but a hell, this holiday is a joke anyways...
Only a stupid baloney of a government like ours can pull out of its ass a stunt like this one.

Play Count (10)

Once again!
And another notch up! Not a single change on the most listened ones, but I have managed to raise the bar, every single song has at least, 9 plays on it.

Cleaning the Apple Pro Keyboard

It is a dirty & messy job, but someone has to step up and do it.
This couldn't wait any long, the keyboard was getting, I shouldn't say smelly, but near.

Besides, I effing love this keyboard, period, the best one I had so far, the clickyness of it is amazing, perhaps, maybe perhaps, when I get my hands on my Happy Hacking that will change, but for now, this one is the king.

The amount of gunk I pulled out from beneath the keys is amazing and disgusting at the same time.

I've seen the future

(at least, weather wise)

It sucks.

Welcome summer.

Effing 29 degrees today.

The current Ubuntu desktop

Using my external Samsung monitor, hooked to Tango, running at 1400x900, pure joy.

Yes, the desktop itself didn't change at all since the last post, but what a hell, the Ubuntu browns kinda grows on you, after a while.

NVIDIA configuration utility

I really don't understand why this program it is not installed by default when you install/ enable the NVIDIA proprietary drivers on Ubuntu.

I was going mad trying to configure the resolution on Tango, hooked up to my external monitor, nothing worked, and was only able to clone the output from the laptop's main screen, even the resolution, which looked like sh*t on the big one.

It looks like, in order to use different resolutions (and to be able to not use the screens on clone mode) you have to install the NVIDIA configuration utility.
To do so, type:

sudo aptitude install nvidia-settings

Once opened, the configuration utility looks like this (at least, its main window):

Music right now (14)

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Firstborn Is Dead - Blind Lemon Jefferson

Blind Lemon Jefferson is a-coming.
Tap tap tappin with his cane.
Blind Lemon Jefferson is a-coming.
Tap tap tappin with his cane.
His last ditch lies down the road of trials
Half filled with rain.
O Sycamore, Sycamore!
Stretch your arms across the storm.
Down fly two greasy brother-crows
They hop'n'bop hop'n'bop hop'n'bop
Like the tax-man come to call.
They go knock knock! Knock knock!
Hop'n'bop hop'n'bop
They slap a death-writ on his door.
Here come the Judgement train
Git on board!
And turn that big black engine home.
O let's roll!
Let's roll!
Down the tunnel.
The terrible tunnel of his world.
Waiting at his final station
Like a bigger blacker third bird.
O let's roll!
Let's roll!
O his road is dark and lonely.
He don't drive no Cadillac.
O his road is dark and holy.
He don't drive no Cadillac.
If that sky serves as his eyes
Then that moons a cataract.
Let's roll!
Yeah let's roll!

TZ change, this time for real

It's official. (Or as official as it can get as of today, given the current state of the world we are living on right now).

I'm sure Apple will not release an update (like it failled to do last year), and, at least, this year the government is giving a 10 day notice, and not effing sh*tt*ng the holidays -the IT people holidays that is- by changing the hour on a December 30th like last year.

Life is good.

- El domingo 19 habrá que adelantar el reloj
- El reloj oficial ya marca la hora de la discordia: polémica por el cambio

The Ubuntu love bug is alive

My Ubuntu infatuation goes on and on...
Hardly even booting any Os X box these days, not to mention vista.

Compiz & Emerald seem to be giving me everything that I used to like from Os X, and on top of that, I can literally waste hours configuring just about anything I like to.

Like I said, I'm pretty sure my next laptop would be a Linux one.
Incidentally, that lovely System 76 model is no longer available... Truly sad.

The updates have landed

They finally arrived!
Amazing really, if you compare this to Apple's case, in which they didn't produce a single TZ update in more than 3 months, when Argentina changed its hour on December 27th, 2007.

Evo: Only 72 chars wide

This is rough... It has to be a really, really good reason for this...

I was Googling for an answer on how to set the line width on Evolution's emails longer, when I tought, why not search on the Evolution documentation site??? What can I say.. I'm effing clever late at night...

And there it was my answer, lo and behold, the width is hard coded onto Evolution, I can't effing believe this, why on Earth would someone do something like that?

Why cannot I reset word wrap setting for outgoing mails at 72 characters?

Sorry, the value is hardcoded.

Link


Next, get Evolution to honor my global Emacs keyboard shortcut settings, well, at least, for writing emails...

My kind of spring

We had a pretty cool decent day today. Simply. Amazing.
Quite a difference from what was like yesterday.

Disable Evolution notifications on Gnome Panel (2)

In the end, I found the option, it is not under 'Preferences', but on the 'Plugins' one.
It is the 'Mail Notification' one (see screenshot).
The strange thing, it simply disables the gconf-editor keys I mention (and tested) on my previous post... Maybe I have tested it incorrectly...

Anyway, it is working, also, the same plugin allows you to customize the sound Evolution should produce (by default) when a new emails arrives.

Summer, here we go

At least, as of today, it is not that bad, as the buildings are still cool, but, after a few days of this crap, and it's hell all the way once again.

Stackswitch: cool Compiz plugin

I was Googling for some tips on how to make the Compiz Scale plugin behave more like Expose (I miss the tab to circulate thru the minimized windows a lot...), when I found bout this rather cool looking and handy plugin: Stackswitch.

Sort of a forced TZ data change

Not even running Linux...

Last year it was on Os X, and Apple that did not release an effing TZ data fix during the whole duration (some 3 months IIRC), and now, it is on Ubuntu, sort of :D

If you are running Ubuntu, and getting the time via ntpdate, your clock should be one hour ahead now, of course, if you have the bad luck of living in Argentina, that is.

Argentina is 1 hour ahead when it shouldn't
[ubuntu-ar] Cambio de Hora.