ffmpeg: Transcode A Specific Audio Channel

Another one of the ffmpeg snippets I've used:

ffmpeg -i my-video.ISO -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a:2 -c:v libx264 -crf 19 -preset slow -c:a aac -strict experimental -b:a 192k -ac 2 my-video.mp4

This one will convert the ISO file onto an mp4 video, and on top of that will only save on the file the audio track number 2.
The info on how to select the audio track can be obtained from:

Input #0, mpeg, from 'my-video.ISO':
  Duration: 00:04:19.23, start: 4318.404233, bitrate: 5494 kb/s
    Stream #0:0[0x1bf]: Data: dvd_nav_packet
    Stream #0:1[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video (Main), yuv420p(tv), 720x480 [SAR 32:27 DAR 16:9], max. 7500 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 59.94 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc
    Stream #0:2[0x82]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 192 kb/s
    Stream #0:3[0x81]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 192 kb/s
    Stream #0:4[0x80]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, mono, fltp, 192 kb/s
    Stream #0:5[0x25]: Subtitle: dvd_subtitle
    Stream #0:6[0x24]: Subtitle: dvd_subtitle
    Stream #0:7[0x21]: Subtitle: dvd_subtitle
    Stream #0:8[0x20]: Subtitle: dvd_subtitle
    Stream #0:9[0x23]: Subtitle: dvd_subtitle
    Stream #0:10[0x22]: Subtitle: dvd_subtitle
    Stream #0:11[0x1d7]: Audio: mp2, 0 channels

Which you can get issuing a:

ffmpeg -i my-video.ISO

Linux Mint Cinnamon 17.3 On The Thinkpad T430

Well, it was about time, I guess...
Upgraded the Linux Mint release on the T430, it took about 10 minutes, and everything seems to be just fine after the install and a reboot.
After doing the same on the T60 and the T60p without any issue, it was time to take the T430 down the upgrade path... After all, the little lappie that could has a new battery.

New (Power) Juice For The T430

On Friday got me a new (chinese knockoff) battery for my Thinkpad T430.
Was really worried that the little battery from the distant China won't be able to actually charge on the T430, but so far, so good.
It gave me about 4 and half hours of juice...
Will see how it performs...

100K and counting!

Ok, I made it to 100K...
What can I say, I'm speechless...

Updating the BIOS On The Thinkpad T430

Ok, a follow up on the BIOS update on my beloved T430... Yes, the one that wanted a battery no matter what...
Or going from this:

krull > sudo dmidecode -t bios
[sudo] password for hictio:
# dmidecode 2.12
SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x000E, DMI type 0, 24 bytes
BIOS Information
    Vendor: LENOVO
    Version: G1ET45WW (1.20 )
    Release Date: 08/07/2012
    Address: 0xE0000
    Runtime Size: 128 kB
    ROM Size: 12288 kB
    Characteristics:
        PCI is supported
        PNP is supported
        BIOS is upgradeable
        BIOS shadowing is allowed
        Boot from CD is supported
        Selectable boot is supported
        EDD is supported
        3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
        Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
        8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
        Serial services are supported (int 14h)
        Printer services are supported (int 17h)
        CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
        ACPI is supported
        USB legacy is supported
        BIOS boot specification is supported
        Targeted content distribution is supported
        UEFI is supported
    BIOS Revision: 1.20
    Firmware Revision: 1.7

Handle 0x002D, DMI type 13, 22 bytes
BIOS Language Information
    Language Description Format: Abbreviated
    Installable Languages: 1
        en-US
    Currently Installed Language: en-US
To this:

SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x000C, DMI type 0, 24 bytes
BIOS Information
    Vendor: LENOVO
    Version: G1ETB0WW (2.70 )
    Release Date: 01/21/2016
    Address: 0xE0000
    Runtime Size: 128 kB
    ROM Size: 12288 kB
    Characteristics:
        PCI is supported
        PNP is supported
        BIOS is upgradeable
        BIOS shadowing is allowed
        Boot from CD is supported
        Selectable boot is supported
        EDD is supported
        3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
        Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
        8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
        Serial services are supported (int 14h)
        Printer services are supported (int 17h)
        CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
        ACPI is supported
        USB legacy is supported
        BIOS boot specification is supported
        Targeted content distribution is supported
        UEFI is supported
    BIOS Revision: 2.70
    Firmware Revision: 1.13

Handle 0x002B, DMI type 13, 22 bytes
BIOS Language Information
    Language Description Format: Abbreviated
    Installable Languages: 1
        en-US
    Currently Installed Language: en-US

Got the newest BIOS here.

As of today, the current on is the one released on 2/22/2016.
The file named is "g1uj38us.iso" with a size of 37.4 MB.

Instructions on how to install a BIOS on a box without Windows are pretty straight forward:

• Lenovo Thinkpad BIOS Update with Linux and USB

• Updating the BIOS on Lenovo laptops from Linux using a USB flash stick

Here are the steps I did:

cd /tmp/
wget http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~krienke/ftp/noarch/geteltorito/geteltorito
chmod +x geteltorito

./geteltorito -o bios.img g1uj38us.iso
Booting catalog starts at sector: 20
Manufacturer of CD: NERO BURNING ROM
Image architecture: x86
Boot media type is: harddisk
El Torito image starts at sector 27 and has 75776 sector(s) of 512 Bytes

Image has been written to file "bios.img".
Then create the booting USB drive:

sudo dd if=bios.img of=/dev/sdb bs=1M

Reboot the T430, booting from the USB drive (doh!), and follow the instructions, it takes less than 20 minutes.

One cool thing about this whole thing is that you can use one of those old 1 GB USB pen drives that you have around, since the BIOS image is really small.

The current Linux Mint desktop

It's been a while since the last Cinnamon screen shot, so here it goes!
A somewhat fresh install of Linux Mint.
I love this release, Cinnamon looks amazingly clean and sharp.

HDD Swap For The GF

Another installment of the ongoing battle for switching the GF's Lenovo N585 from Windows 10 to Windows 7.
(Link 1 & Link 2).
Last Sunday, I had to install the old HDD (the one with Windows 10) on the lappie, so the GF can take out a couple of files that got left behind...

The BIOS Update That Demands a Battery

And if you don't have one, fuck you, dude!
I love Thinkpads, I've been using them with Linux for ages now; but crap like this (and I don't want even start on the sh*t they pull wiht batteries nowadays) really makes me mad.

Ok, so, I wanted to upgrade the BIOS on the T430, in order to try to get a battery, since the one that came with the lappie died...
But, it turns out that:

The battery needs to be charged to avoid an accidental power-off during an update. Turn off the computer and connect the AC adapter to charge the battery.

The thing is, the T430 battery is wiped dead... I was screwed...
Luckily, the battery from the W530 worked A Ok...

The Case of The Missing Dropshadow on Cinnamon

I've noticed, right after installing Linux Mint Cinnamon (32 bits of course) on the T60 that there was a missing drip shadow effect on the topside of the windows.
This happened after installing, during the USB booted session all the drop shadows were there (see the screen shot on the link above), and the compare that with the screen shot on the right.
After making the update to Linux Mint 17.3 all the shadows are back and in place, see the screen shot on the left.

Friday 20-05-2016

OS Update For The GF

Well, she isn't Cherry 2000, so, actually the OS update it is for her laptops...
Taken last Sunday afternoon...
Side by side, both of the GF lappies, getting an OS update/ refreshment.
On the left, the T410, jumping from Linux Mint 17 (Cinnamon) to Ubuntu 16.04 (plain vanilla Unity).
On the right, the Lenovo N585, going from Window 10 to Windows 7, it looks like Windows 10 was way too much for the lappie. or maybe it was because she did an upgrade from Windows 8 (which already was a bit slow) to Windows 10.

Movies During The Weekend

We had a problem with the Roku's 220/110 V transformer, yes, the one I've soldered before...
Everything seems ok, no need to solder nothing... But, the MF didn't work...
So, I've did a bit of web research, and it looks like you can actually plug the little thing directly onto 220, I gave that a go, and it worked A Ok, but things didn't look right, so we ditch the Roku for the weekend.
We watched the movies directly on the GF TV, the thing is, subs don't work on her Sony...

• The Finest Hours

We wanted to see this movie for quite a while, it turned out to be quite good, actually.
Only thing, sometimes it is really obvious that the actors aren't freezing.

• Pod

We saw the trailer with the GF.
It is nice, it reminds me a lot to an X Files episode.

Malocchio

Well, from now on... This is me...

This last couple of weeks I was struggling to actually use the lappies... On my last check, about a year ago, I had the choice, but with the obvious caveat, if you jump, you'll have to wear them forever... At the moment, it didn't seem necessary, but about 20 days ago or so it became unbearable.

So, eye glasses for me! At least for close reading (at the moment).
I have a recurrent problem on my left eye, but this is a whole new ball game... Got them about an hour ago, I'm fighting a new monster here...
One thing is for certain, looking at the lappie's screen is a total relief once again.

99K and counting!

Ok... What can I say?
A thousand to go to the Big One Hundred.

Wireless HP Laserjet Professional P1100/ P1560/ P1600 on Ubunt Xenial Xerus

Or, thanks a lot, hp-setup!
As part of the re-install fest during last weekend, I also had to install the GF's printer on her Ubuntu lappie.
This time it wasn't as smooth as with Linux Mint, but not a real problem... In the end, the WiFi printer works A Ok.

At first it belched with an error message:

sudo hp-setup
sudo: unable to resolve host gf-lappie
[sudo] password for gf:

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.16.3)
Printer/Fax Setup Utility ver. 9.0

Copyright (c) 2001-15 HP Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

error: HPLIP is not installed properly or is installed without graphical support. Please reinstall HPLIP
warning: Qt/PyQt 4 initialization failed.
error: hp-setup requires GUI support (try running with --qt3). Also, try using interactive (-i) mode.
gf@gf-lappie:~$

So, I went with the interactive install:

$ sudo hp-setup -i
sudo: unable to resolve host gf-lappie

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.16.3)
Printer/Fax Setup Utility ver. 9.0

Copyright (c) 2001-15 HP Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

(Note: Defaults for each question are maked with a '*'. Press to accept the default.)


--------------------------------
| SELECT CONNECTION (I/O) TYPE |
--------------------------------

  Num       Connection  Description                                              
            Type                                                                 
  --------  ----------  ----------------------------------------------------------
  0*        usb         Universal Serial Bus (USB)                               
  1         net         Network/Ethernet/Wireless (direct connection or JetDirect)
  2         par         Parallel Port (LPT:)                                     

Enter number 0...2 for connection type (q=quit, enter=usb*) ? 1

Setting up device: hp:/net/HP_LaserJet_Professional_P_1102w?ip=192.168.0.19



------------------------
| PLUG-IN INSTALLATION |
------------------------


HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.16.3)
Plugin Download and Install Utility ver. 2.1

Copyright (c) 2001-15 HP Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

warning: It is not recommended to run 'hp-plugin' in a root mode.

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.16.3)
Plugin Download and Install Utility ver. 2.1

Copyright (c) 2001-15 HP Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

(Note: Defaults for each question are maked with a '*'. Press to accept the default.)


-----------------------------------------
| PLUG-IN INSTALLATION FOR HPLIP 3.16.3 |
-----------------------------------------

  Option      Description                                      
  ----------  --------------------------------------------------
  d           Download plug-in from HP (recommended)           
  p           Specify a path to the plug-in (advanced)         
  q           Quit hp-plugin (skip installation)               

Enter option (d=download*, p=specify path, q=quit) ? d

Do you accept the license terms for the plug-in (y=yes*, n=no, q=quit) ?

Done.

Done.

---------------------
| PRINT QUEUE SETUP |
---------------------


Please enter a name for this print queue (m=use model name:'HP_LaserJet_Professional_P_1102w'*, q=quit) ?

Using queue name: HP_LaserJet_Professional_P_1102w
Locating PPD file... Please wait.

Found PPD file: drv:///hpcups.drv/hp-laserjet_professional_p_1102w.ppd
Description:

Note: The model number may vary slightly from the actual model number on the device.

Does this PPD file appear to be the correct one (y=yes*, n=no, q=quit) ? y
Enter a location description for this printer (q=quit) ENTER
Enter additonal information or notes for this printer (q=quit) ? ENTER
---------------------
| PRINTER TEST PAGE |
---------------------


Would you like to print a test page (y=yes*, n=no, q=quit) ? y


It worked like magic, zero problems.

Upgrades During The Weekend

Took last Sunday to make some changes on the GF lappies.
Her Windows lappie, the Lenovo N585) was dog slow, so I pulled the HDD out, slapped another one I had around the house, and loaded a brand spanking new Windows 7 onto it.
Also, took the T410 and replaced the Linux Mint 17 install with a brand spanking new of Xenail, wiht Unity!
She loved it the interface, go figure, and the Desktop Environment choice of colors, go figure...
Also, of course, she loves the fact that now can use the Jam Trance Mini bluetooth speakers with the lappie.
Installing and setting up the Linux lappie was a breezy, ITOH, the Windows...
MF, what a drag! It took hours and more hours and more hours to setup, install updates, get shit done... Not to mention countless effing reboots...
Anyways, anything for the GF!

Get Back To Synergy, You Fool!

One of those things, you know... You stop one day, and then you don't use it for a while...
And then, you forget completely about it...
A senior moment, no doubt about it...
Anyways, I'm back onto Synergy, big time.
Here is the synergy.conf file from Colossus, as I'm using Synergy at least right now, with Krull & Colossus, as usual, tunnelling the whole thing thru SSH...


## /etc/synergy.conf

section: screens
        colossus:
                switchCorners = none
                switchCornerSize = 0
        krull:
                switchCorners = none
                switchCornerSize = 0
end

section: aliases
        krull:
                10.120.10.3
end

section: links
        colossus:
                left = krull
        krull:
                right = colossus
end

section: options
        switchDelay                             = 500
        screenSaverSync                         = false
        keystroke(shift+control+left)           = switchToScreen(krull)
        keystroke(shift+control+right)          = switchToScreen(colossus)
end

All LEDs And Also Linux Joy

A little update on getting the Jam Trance Mini Bluetooth speaker working on Linux.
The little speaker refused to work on 14.04, as I tested with the GF during our vacations...
But, lo and behold, it works out of the box on Xenial.

Movies During The Weekend

That is, last weekend... We watched two amazing movies.

• Synchronicity

Very cool one, another indie sci-fy flick, but with punch, spirit and gusto ;)
Visually the whole thing is a huge Blade Runner homage.

• The VVitch

Really, really good movie.
It scared the effing shit out of me, I loved it.

Guiso De Pastas FTW!

The world famous GF's "Guiso de pasta", effing amazing for autumn/ winter nights.
This was last Sunday.

Linux Mint 17.2 Cinnamon On The Thinkpad T60

Time to upgrade!
Installed Linux Mint's Cinnamon on the T60.
Took the HDD that I was using on the X140e (a 128 GB SSD) zapped it on the T60 and installed Linux Mint on it, thru a USB key, the install was a flash (jo!) and smooth as silk.
After the install, 300 MB of updates, and a reboot, everything seems to be running just fine, Suspend/ Resume, etc, etc...
Damn, the thing looks sexy and classic!

Linux Mint: Testing The Mint-Y Theme

So, I tested the newest Linux Mint theme on my beloved T430...
It looks like shit, but that's -I'm pretty sure of it- because I'm running versions from halcyon days...
The theme is available, as beta, of course, on its Github page: Linux Mint Mint-y-Theme

Xenial Xerus: Slowly Connecting To WiFi Networks

One thing I've noticed since I'm running 16.04 on the Thinkpad X140e, is that the WiFi card tends to take a lot of time to connect to any of my already defined networks, that is, the ones to which I connected before.
Sometimes I have to even connect to my network by hand, this seem to happen not only after a reboot, but after resuming from a suspend too.

Xenial Xerus: Xeriously long service status output

Another chapter on the ongoing 16.04 migration...
I don't know what a hell are they thinking at Canonical, but I don't get the idea behind the insane amount of information that querying the services belches right now.
I hope this feature disables itself under a certain load, similar to what happens with the "Landscape pitch" MOTD when you login onto an Ubuntu Server, that turns itself off under certain load threshold...


From this:


$ sudo service ssh status
ssh start/running, process 712

Or this:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/ssh status
[sudo] password for hictio:
Rather than invoking init scripts through /etc/init.d, use the service(8)
utility, e.g. service ssh status

Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an
Upstart job, you may also use the status(8) utility, e.g. status ssh
ssh start/running, process 712

To this:

hictio@tango:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/ssh status
[sudo] password for hictio:
● ssh.service - OpenBSD Secure Shell server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/ssh.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2016-05-04 21:44:04 ART; 10min ago
  Process: 1291 ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 932 (sshd)
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 512)
   CGroup: /system.slice/ssh.service
           └─932 /usr/sbin/sshd -D

May 04 21:44:04 tango systemd[1]: Started OpenBSD Secure Shell server.
May 04 21:44:09 tango systemd[1]: Reloading OpenBSD Secure Shell server.
May 04 21:44:09 tango systemd[1]: Reloaded OpenBSD Secure Shell server.
May 04 21:44:09 tango sshd[932]: Received SIGHUP; restarting.
May 04 21:44:09 tango sshd[932]: Server listening on 0.0.0.0 port 22.
May 04 21:44:09 tango sshd[932]: Server listening on :: port 22.
May 04 21:53:58 tango sshd[2593]: Failed password for hictio from 107.134.201.232 port 52009 ssh2
May 04 21:54:01 tango sshd[2593]: pam_ecryptfs: pam_sm_authenticate: /home/hictio is already mounted
May 04 21:54:01 tango sshd[2593]: Accepted password for hictio from 10.120.10.13 port 52009 ssh2
May 04 21:54:01 tango sshd[2593]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user hictio by (uid=0)
hictio@tango:~$

98K and counting!

Another thousand up!
The 100K are just around the corner, God damn it!

Emergency Repairs

This afternoon, on the GF house...
The damn 220 to 110 volts transformer that we have to use on the Roku 3, since they don't cater to this part of the world, they don't give a rat's ass about other current than 110, fell and broke open...
Lucky me, my GF is the type that has a soldering gun at her house...
Another note goes to the lousy/ cheap motherfuckers that build the transformer here in Argentina... They skimp on a MOFO filament...

Forticlient 64 bits on Ubuntu 16.04

As part of the migration to Xenial Xerus on my Thinkpad X140e, I had to install the Forticlient SSL client no matter what, as I use it a lot for work related stuff.
I had to deal with this a couple of times already...
This time things went somehow smooth:

sudo dpkg -i forticlient-sslvpn_4.4.2313-1_amd64.deb
Selecting previously unselected package forticlient-sslvpn.
(Reading database ... 182887 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack forticlient-sslvpn_4.4.2313-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking forticlient-sslvpn (4.4.2313-1) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of forticlient-sslvpn:
 forticlient-sslvpn depends on lib32gcc1 (>= 1:4.1.1); however:
  Package lib32gcc1 is not installed.
 forticlient-sslvpn depends on libc6-i386 (>= 2.3.4); however:
  Package libc6-i386 is not installed.

Installed without much fuss, but, stupid me, forgot to issue a dry run first...
Any ways... The Forticlient work A Ok after this (go figure), but the dkpg message seemed a bit ominous and annoying...

First things firt, let's try with the damn dependency error:

sudo apt-get install libc6-i386

dpkg: error processing package forticlient-sslvpn (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-6ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu5) ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.3~bzr0+16.04.20160415-0ubuntu1) ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.59ubuntu1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 forticlient-sslvpn

No luck!

So I gave a shot a refreshing the packages:

$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree     
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 forticlient-sslvpn : Depends: lib32gcc1 (>= 1:4.1.1) but it is not installed
                      Depends: libc6-i386 (>= 2.3.4) but it is not installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

Error!
And this was right after a fresh install of Xenial...
Issued a:

$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree     
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  guile-2.0-libs libexiv2-14 libgc1c2 libgexiv2-2 libqqwing2v5 libraw15
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
  lib32gcc1 libc6-i386
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  lib32gcc1 libc6-i386
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 2,381 kB of archives.
After this operation, 10.6 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y

And presto, problem solved.

Stupid Old Hardware

Today I took about an hour to play with some old boxes that I still have lying around -more like hidden in closets- on the house, the all time beauty Quicksilver, the Powermac from halcyon (PPC) days and an ancient Celeron, or I don't know "what kind of crap CPU it has", but has 1 GB RAM, and a DVI NVIDIA video card, AKA: Zeus.

The idea was to see if they even boot, and if they do, try to test a lightweight Linux Mint XFCE (32 bits of course) on Zeus and Ubuntu Mate (PPC, of course) on the Quicksilver.

Zeus booted all-right to an Ubuntu 10.04, and the damned CD-ROM (remember those???) refused to work for quite a while, when it did, it was impossible to boot from it; go figure.
Gave it a try booting from a USB, but I had even less luck. With the Quicksilver I had no luck at all, impossible to make it boot from the CD-ROM, although, it did boot A Ok onto Tiger (remember that glorious OS?).

Total fail on this matter, but, ITOH, I don't know why I even bother, those boxes, specially Zeus, are a total a complete piece of crap, I should throw it to the garbage.
The Quicksilver is really beauty to look at, but both would make a terrible desktop experience nowadays.

All Your Flatness Belong To Us!

The proposed new theme for the upcoming Linux Mint 18.
I effing love it!
It seems like flat is the new sexy, and I'm really going to have a tough time deciding on this or Unity...
The theme is called Mint-Y, the previous ones was Mint-X, and I like it, except for those pesky stupid X's instead of tildes on the check boxes.

Movies During The Weekend

Only two movies during this weekend... We had some social engagements, and on Sunday we had to hit the sack really early, the GF had a meeting early on Monday.

The Boy
We saw the trailer with the GF a couple of months ago and we liked it quite a bit... But, yes, I was really hoping for something way better than this...

The Seven Ups
A really cool one!
Nice car chases (the GF loves those, made her watch "Vanishing Point", BTW) gritty 70's NYC film with all you come to expect from those.

Xenial Xerus on The Thinkpad X140e

Replaced the SSD on the X140e today, a 128 GB for a 256 GB one, and installed right away 16.04 (64 bits, of course) on the little lappie.
Things went pretty much smooth during the install, the only problem was that the installer did not recognized the WiFi card, so I had to make the install connected via the Ethernet (anyways after the install is over, and the mandatory, reboot the WiFi performed A Ok).
I'll keep testing the whole thing tomorrow, but so far, things work well.

An All Metal Thinkpad

Why? Why on Earth there isn't an aluminium Thinkpad already?
A unibody -perhaps black- metal Thinkpad?
That would be the greatest and my dream laptop for ever and ever, I can even settle for a non black model, a plain silver one.

Ad-free Spotify: I Welcome Thee

So, I moved to Spotify towards the end of last December, after al of the other streaming services I've used that year closed down.
One thing I've noticed right away while using Spotify was how incredibly annoying were the ads, don't know what the hell had happen but I have no ads any more... Noticed this about two weeks ago, and I thought it was some glitch that would last for a couple of days tops, but, go figure, I'm still ad-free.

97K and counting!

And another thousand up!
Only 3K to the Big 100!