No (Google) Calendar For You!

Well this is a first one....
I've been using it for ages now, don't recall having any problem accessing it.

ffmpeg ++ youtube-dl

The last couple of days have been pretty fast moving and hectic around here, lots of work and no time for my beloved Oesediez.
I can't believe I'm using ffmpeg that much...
Been downloading some of my favourite songs from Youtube (with youtube-dl, of course) and transcoding them onto mp3s.
All this Spotify left me lusting for more and (some) new music!!!

Mac O Ese?

So, guess sometime around last week Apple changed the name for its OS (that is, not for iOS, but the OS from the devices not much people care about) from Os X to MacOS...
Should I have to re-name this blog?
No shit way! A lot of water under the bridge since I named it, and nobody gives a fucking shit about this anyhow.

The Unity Desktop

Been a while since the last Unity Desktop Post around here...
So here it goes...
Using my own customized version of Ambiance, with the enhanced (at least IMHO) Launcher that I stole from a beautiful theme named Numix Touch Flat.

Movies During The Weekend

A nice, relaxed four day weekend (can you fucking believe that... This fucking country couldn't happen to have more holidays...), in which incidentally, included my 45th birthday.
We watched a film or two...

 
True Crime
Cool one, AFAIK, it was the first time I watch that one (yes, I'm that old...)
The interaction between Clint & James Woods steals the whole movie.

Whisky Tango Foxtrot
Nice one, you might say a chick flick with bullets and bloody fucking terrorists.
Enjoyed it and the GF too.

The Player
A re-watch for me, but a first time for the GF.
Nice to watch it once again, specially on FHD, saw this one at the theater, way back when...

Thursday 09-06-2016 (2)

102K and counting!

Another thousand up...
Been really, really busy, I guess the music rate might be slowing down a bit...

Dinner

Taken last Saturday... Boy oh boy!
An amazing dinner cooked by the GF!!!

- Chicken Breasts
- Scrambled eggs
- Peas
- Carrots

The chicken breasts were cooked/ made with Jack Daniels' BBQ sausage...
Damn that was good!

Movies During The Weekend

• Hail, Cesar

Mighty funny movie.
The Marcuse "cameo" is a riot.

• Grosse Pointe Blank

A re-watch for me, and a first for the GF.
I simply love this movie... I never get tired of it, and the soundtrack is amazing, of course.

• Midnight Special

We started with this one... I have to say that it has one of the worst posters I've seen... I thought it was a Star Wars joke or something...
We were mighty tired, so we crashed about 45 minutes onto the film, even tho it was amazing...
I could not restrain myself, and I finished it Monday night, I have to say that it starts really well, but the end.... The end...

Thursday 09-06-2016

The DOT Emacs file from Xenial Xerus

;; ---------------------------------------------------
;; ~/.emacs default file
;; ---------------------------------------------------

;; -----------------------------------------------
;; Safe defaults

(setq inhibit-startup-message t)
(setq default-major-mode 'text-mode);;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; This doesn't work on Emacs 24 ;; 
;; (menu-bar-mode nil)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
(menu-bar-mode -1)
(setq bell-volume 100)
(setq visible-bell t)

;; -----------------------------------------------
;; Modeline customization

(display-time)
(setq line-number-mode t)
(setq column-number-mode t)

;; -----------------------------------------------
;; Keyboards shortcuts

(define-key global-map "\C-h" 'backward-delete-char)
(define-key global-map "\M-h" 'backward-kill-word)
(define-key global-map "\C-x\C-u" 'undo)

(global-set-key [f5] 'bury-buffer)

;; (pc-selection-mode)

;; Esc + the arrow keys as a way to delete words
(define-key esc-map [right] 'kill-word)         ;; esc -> kill-word
(define-key esc-map [left] 'backward-kill-word) ;; esc <- backward-kill-word="" br="">
;; -----------------------------------------------

;; Backups

(defun make-backup-file-name (file-name)
  "Create the non-numeric backup file name for `file-name'."
  (require 'dired)
  (if (file-exists-p "~/emacs/backups")
      (concat (expand-file-name "~/emacs/backups/")
      (dired-replace-in-string "/" "|" file-name))
      (concat file-name "~")))

;; -----------------------------------------------
;; Turn on color syntax
(global-font-lock-mode t)

;; -----------------------------------------------
;; Insert timestamp
(defvar insert-time-format "%T")

(defvar insert-date-format "%d %m %Y"
  "*Format for \\[insert-date] (c.f. 'format-time-string' for how to format).")

(defun iTime ()
  (interactive "*")
  (insert (format-time-string insert-time-format
                                    (current-time))))
(defun iDate ()
  (interactive "*")
  (insert (format-time-string insert-date-format
                                    (current-time))))
(defun iDate ()
  (interactive "*")
  (insert (format-time-string insert-date-format
                                    (current-time))))
(defun iDateTotal ()
  (interactive "*")
  (progn
    (iDate)
    (insert " ")
    (iTime)))

;; -----------------------------------------------

;; Abreviaciones ;;
(setq-default abbrev-mode t)
(read-abbrev-file "~/emacs/definiciones_abreviaciones.txt")
(setq save-abbrevs t)

;; Returns the cursor point to the beginning of the abrev
;; De: http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=96509133&m=1050920535
(defun abr-back ()
   "move abbrev cursor position back to [/"
   (search-backward "[/")
   (put no-self-insert t)
)

;; -----------------------------------------------
;; Turn on color syntax ;;
(global-font-lock-mode t)

;; -----------------------------------------------
;; Loads the path to the installed lisp programs ;;
(setq load-path (cons  "~/emacs/lisp/" load-path))

(require 'blinking-cursor)
(blinking-cursor-mode 1)
(setq blinking-cursor-colors [\"gold\" \"blue\"])

;; Artist.el - Allows to draw using ASCII art
(autoload 'artist-mode "artist" "Enter artist-mode" t)

;; Setnu - Adds line numbering
(autoload 'setnu-mode  "setnu" "Buffer Line Numbering" t)
(defun turn-on-setnu-mode ())

;; IOS mode - Useful to edit Cisco configuration files
;; http://nibrahim.net.in/software/
(autoload 'ios-config-mode "ios-config-mode" "Enter IOS-mode" t)

;; HTML Helper mode
(autoload 'html-helper-mode "html-helper-mode" "Yay HTML" t)
(setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.html$" . html-helper-mode) auto-mode-alist))
(setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.htm$" . html-helper-mode) auto-mode-alist))
(setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.php$" . html-helper-mode) auto-mode-alist))
(setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.vxml$" . html-helper-mode) auto-mode-alist))

;; Adds an HTML template
(setq html-helper-build-new-buffer t)

;; Adds HTML syntax color, uses "html-font.el"
(add-hook 'html-helper-load-hook '(lambda () (require 'html-font)))
(add-hook 'html-helper-mode-hook '(lambda () (font-lock-mode 1)))

(setq html-helper-do-write-file-hooks t)

;; -----------------------------------------------

;; EoF ;;

The Kernel Upgrade That FUBARED The Jam Trance Mini

Or at least, it broke the Bluetooth connection...
So, the GF has a Jam Trance Mini, right? And the little speaker (now) works Ok on Linux, right?
Wrong...
Thing is, the newest kernel on Ubuntu Xenial Xerus broke all things regarding the Jam Trance Mini; it paired Ok, but it refused to play music, or if it did, the quality was awful.
After testing a thing or two, I've decided the best thing to do was to boot to an older kernel, and give it a shot.
Selecting a different kernel than the default one is a piece of cake, simply press Shift while Linux is booting, and then select the option "Advanced options for Ubuntu" and highlight the kernel you want to boot from.
Now, setting things up so that it automagically boots using that prior kernel, well, that was another beast...
You'll have to edit (via sudo, of course) the file "/etc/default/grub", and get the necessary information from the file "/boot/grub/grub.cfg".

Change the line:

GRUB_DEFAULT=0

With this:

GRUB_DEFAULT='gnulinux-advanced-2ed5642e-fea9-43ed-bb73-4a32d4e58587>gnulinux-4.4.0-21-generic-advanced-2ed5642e-fea9-43ed-bb73-4a32d4e58587'

Where "gnulinux-advanced-2ed5642e-fea9-43ed-bb73-4a32d4e58587" is the menuentry_id_option for the newest kernel (the one that has problems with the Jam Trance Mini), and
"gnulinux-4.4.0-21-generic-advanced-2ed5642e-fea9-43ed-bb73-4a32d4e58587" is the menuentry_id_option for the kernel that you want to use, the one that it has to boot the Linux lappie.

EDIT:
After editing (and saving) the file "/etc/default/grub" you have to execute: sudo update-grub and reboot.

Thats it... The Jam Trance Mini works A Ok once again, and the GF is happy.

Wednesday 08-06-2016

Dinner

An early dinner, after a whole day of meetings at work, last Wednesday.
What can I say, the food was there, someone had to eat it, right?

- Salmon tartine
- Fruit salad

101K and counting!

Yeah... You know the drill...
Up & up & up we go...

Movies During The Weekend

Another mighty & magnificent weekend around here, watched a shit load of movies with the GF.

• The Stuff

A re-watch for me, although I guess the last time I saw it might have been 20 years ago...

• The Other Side Of The Door

Nice... Pretty much like Pet Semetary, but set in India...

• American Gigolo

Nice to re-watch, specially in FHD.

• Zombie Hamlet

One of those B movies that the GF is so fond of...

• 10 Cloverfield Lane

Mighty good, the best of the bunch, no questions asked.

Dinner

This was about a week ago or close by...

- Agnolotti (Ham & Mozzarella)
- Hamburguer (slightly burned, the way I like it)
- Carrots

Back To Boredom

On Saturday I've finished "Back To Blood"... Boy... It took me since late March to go through, it is looongish, extremely loooongish, and it regurgitates already read tricks...
No, it wasn't a good read.
Too bad, because Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff is one of the best books I've read in my life.

The current Linux Mint desktop

A nice desktop for my recently upgraded Linux Mint Cinnamon on my beloved T60.

In The 98th Percentile...

It's been a week with the new battery on the T430 and so far it still charges Ok, and of course, holds a charge... Well, somehow...
I've noticed that even while plugged in, the battery drops a few lines of the 100% charged...
I've never seen such thing on a Thinkpad battery before.

Movies During The Weekend

Last weekend it was winter at full blast around here, cold, rain, lovely, amazing weather to be shut in with the GF and watch a shitload of movies.

• 13 Hours

Simply amazing!
The GF and I loved it, keeping up with the best of "Black Hawk Down".

• Boiler Room

A rewatch for me, firt watch for the GF... IMHO it aged sort of nicely...

• Phil Spector

Wanted to see this one for quite a while.
At last a role for an aging Al Pacino in which he doesn't do his trademark "Ju Áa"!

• The Eiger Sanction

Yeah, well, waht can I say... It was entertaining.

• Deliver Us From Evil

A rewatch for both the GF and me, wanted so to see this one together, since when I saw it, we were in the middle of a stupid and short fight.

A Spiffy Gnome Look

The page has a new, well, look... A flatter, more modern one.
It seems like all the themes I've become a fan of were lost on the migration, at least at the moment.

Not The Messages You'd Like To See

During a kernel upgrade...

Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/5): kernel-2.6.32-642.1.1.el6.x86_64.rpm                                                                                |  32 MB     00:02   
(2/5): kernel-firmware-2.6.32-642.1.1.el6.noarch.rpm                                                                       |  28 MB     00:02   
(3/5): kernel-headers-2.6.32-642.1.1.el6.x86_64.rpm                                                                        | 4.4 MB     00:01   
(4/5): ntp-4.2.6p5-10.el6.1.x86_64.rpm                                                                                     | 598 kB     00:00   
(5/5): ntpdate-4.2.6p5-10.el6.1.x86_64.rpm                                                                                 |  78 kB     00:00   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                                                             9.2 MB/s |  65 MB     00:07   
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Updating   : kernel-firmware-2.6.32-642.1.1.el6.noarch                                                                                     1/10
  Updating   : ntpdate-4.2.6p5-10.el6.1.x86_64                                                                                               2/10
  Updating   : ntp-4.2.6p5-10.el6.1.x86_64                                                                                                   3/10
  Installing : kernel-2.6.32-642.1.1.el6.x86_64                                                                                              4/10
  Updating   : kernel-headers-2.6.32-642.1.1.el6.x86_64                                                                                      5/10
  Cleanup    : kernel-2.6.32-573.26.1.el6.x86_64                                                                                             6/10
warning:    erase unlink of /lib/modules/2.6.32-573.26.1.el6.x86_64/weak-updates failed: No such file or directory
warning:    erase unlink of /lib/modules/2.6.32-573.26.1.el6.x86_64/modules.order failed: No such file or directory
warning:    erase unlink of /lib/modules/2.6.32-573.26.1.el6.x86_64/modules.networking failed: No such file or directory
warning:    erase unlink of /lib/modules/2.6.32-573.26.1.el6.x86_64/modules.modesetting failed: No such file or directory
warning:    erase unlink of /lib/modules/2.6.32-573.26.1.el6.x86_64/modules.drm failed: No such file or directory
warning:    erase unlink of /lib/modules/2.6.32-573.26.1.el6.x86_64/modules.block failed: No such file or directory
  Cleanup    : kernel-firmware-2.6.32-642.el6.noarch                                                                                         7/10
  Cleanup    : kernel-headers-2.6.32-642.el6.x86_64                                                                                          8/10
  Cleanup    : ntp-4.2.6p5-10.el6.x86_64                                                                                                     9/10
  Cleanup    : ntpdate-4.2.6p5-10.el6.x86_64                                                                                                10/10

Evolution: Black Sections Galore!

And yet another problem on Evolution.
One of those pesky black sections shows up once again...
This is while running the plain vanilla Ambiance theme...
I've seen this problem before (Link 1, Link 2 & Link 3)

Xenial Xerus: Dark Stripe On Horizontal Launcher

As we all Linux/ Ubuntu/ Unity dwellers already know, ever since Xenial Xerus release, you can place the Unity Launcher on the bottom of your screen.
I've tested that right away after the install, and I like it a lot, but, I couldn't help to notice (take a look at the picture on the left) that there is a strange and ugly looking dark "stripe" (or, I don't know, faux shadow, maybe?) if you choose to use the Unity Launcher horizontally.
The same stripe (or whatever) disappears on the Launcher if you place it vertically...