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the "pre-blog polls", now reside bellow the blog. please jump to the end of the page to have a little vote in them, just for fun. :)

... now, on with the rambling blog!

Thursday 11 November 2010

*EXPLETIVE* I LOVE

Fuck i love linux! (which i now sometimes abreviate to merely "fill"

Fuck i love xmonad!

Fuck i love uzbl!


that last one is new.

:) just started playing around with it for the first time today. ok, not strictly the first time. i poked around fleetingly a couple other times when checking out a bunch of different browsers.

idk what prompted me to check it out again this time... but i'm glad i did.

i am very surprised!

it's now slotted to be the main browser in witch linux methinks. ... ok, it's not actually that small, but it's minimal and elegent, and renders sites really well *coughnetsurfcough*... and it claims to fit the unix philosophy, of an app should do one job and do it well... rather than apps bloating up in feature-lust.

ok, so it's like 55mb install here in arch. :/ it's not exactly small [(by my hardcore standards)], i accept this. there are smaller browsers.

i got my biggest surprise tho when i opened a youtube link... AND IT PLAYED!

i thought for sure a little browser like this wouldnt have such a feature.

it seems they've got it right... build it for the geeks n u will attract the geeks. more geeks in the userbase = more geeks to contribute to the development.

some brief hanging around in #uzbl on irc.freenode.net has given me the impression that it's progressing at pace. features missing 6 montsh ago, now available, and such like.

so anyways, i'm currently running uzbl to write this blog. uzbl-tabbed to be precise. i have my first uzbl youtube link opened in the previous tab. there's still loads n loads of controls i dont yet know in the default config, like how to close tabs (eep! better not go too crazy), but no doubt i'll be considering changing a few keybinds later on, knowing it's a configulurvable unix-philosophy app.

oh, yeah, and this blog entry isnt gonna be jsut for the lovely lovely uzbl...

i'm gonna share my xmonad config now too.
i've now got tiles resizeable by mouse! aw yeah. so if there are any "awesome" noobs out there who were too scared to try a real man's window manager like xmonad, you can try out my config, n see if it apeases your distrust of the keyboard. ^_^ (just some friendly teasing, dont get uppity with me if you're a awesome fanboy wanting to have a go at me for that.)

it's still a work in progress, but it's all i use in arch.

... come to think of it, when i'm in crunchbang10.04LTS (upped from 9.04), or in Toorox (a lovely gentoo-based distro if u dont know), xmonad is all i use in it too. although, still earlier versions of this config in each... with a couple distro-specific changes... like synaptic and porthole keybind.

suffice to say, it's production ready, to my standards. :)

one admission though... i have noticed it's not quite as zippy and responsive anymore as the default xmonad config is. :/ but still a few cuts above the bloated "Desktop Environment" interfaces.

import XMonad
import XMonad.Hooks.DynamicLog
import XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks
import XMonad.Util.Run(spawnPipe)
import XMonad.Util.EZConfig(additionalKeys)
import XMonad.Hooks.EwmhDesktops
import XMonad.Config.Desktop
import XMonad.Actions.CycleWS
import XMonad.Layout.MouseResizableTile --and shrink/expand slave layout
import System.IO

-- initially created with help of: http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Xmonad/Config_archive/John_Goerzen%27s_Configuration
-- use "xmonad --recompile" to check it's syntactically correct if making changes (better than just modQ)
-- list of key codes http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Xmonad/Key_codes
-- may also prove useful for some keys and commands http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/X11/1.4.5/doc/html/Graphics-X11-Types.html


-- also used
-- http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/xmonad-contrib/0.8/doc/html/XMonad-Doc-Extending#Editing_mouse_bindings.html
-- http://xmonad.org/xmonad-docs/xmonad-contrib/XMonad-Layout-MouseResizableTile.html
---- still need to learn how to change the size of the border gap between tiles now that a 6pixel gap has been adeed. :/


-- yet to be implimented:
-- resizing floating windows from any corner
-- http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/xmonad-contrib/0.8/doc/html/XMonad-Actions-FlexibleResize.html
-- http://xmonad.org/xmonad-docs/xmonad-contrib/XMonad-Actions-FlexibleResize.html


-- may want to encorporate:
-- http://xmonad.org/xmonad-docs/xmonad-contrib/XMonad-Actions-GridSelect.html

-- DEFAULT TEMPATE : http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Xmonad/Config_archive/Template_xmonad.hs_%280.9%29

myManageHook = composeAll
[ className =? "Gimp" --> doFloat
, className =? "pidgin" --> doFloat
, className =? "skype" --> doFloat
, className =? "vlc" --> doFloat
, className =? "tilda" --> doFloat
, className =? "Tilda" --> doFloat
, className =? "Vncviewer" --> doFloat
, className =? "gpicview" --> doFloat
, className =? "Gpicview" --> doFloat
, className =? "BetterPrivacy" --> doFloat
, className =? "Pidgin" --> doFloat
, className =? "Skype" --> doFloat
]

main = do
xmproc <- spawnPipe "/usr/bin/tint2 /home/digit/.config/tint2/tint2rc" xmonad $ ewmh desktopConfig { manageHook = manageDocks <+> myManageHook -- make sure to include myManageHook definition from above
<+> manageHook desktopConfig
, layoutHook = avoidStruts $ layoutHook defaultConfig { layoutHook = myLayout } --see "myLayout" bellow
, startupHook = spawn "starterscripts"
, modMask = mod4Mask -- Rebind Mod to the Windows key
} `additionalKeys`
[ ((mod4Mask, xK_F2), spawn "gmrun")
, ((mod4Mask .|. shiftMask, xK_F2), spawn "gedit ~/.gmrunrc")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_F3), spawn "~/.config/dmenu/dmenu-bind.sh")
, ((mod4Mask .|. shiftMask, xK_F3), spawn "gedit ~/.config/dmenu/dmenu-bind.sh") -- edit dmenu
, ((mod4Mask, xK_F4), kill) -- close focused window
, ((mod1Mask, xK_F4), kill) -- oldskool close focused window
, ((mod4Mask, xK_F5), spawn "xfce4-appfinder")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_F6), spawn "xkill")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_a), spawn "audacity")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_b), spawn "firefox")
, ((mod4Mask .|. mod1Mask, xK_b), spawn "seamonkey")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_c), spawn "pidgin & skype")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_d), spawn "gedit")
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask, xK_d), spawn "gksudo gedit")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_f), spawn "pcmanfm")
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask, xK_f), spawn "gksudo pcmanfm")
, ((mod4Mask .|. shiftMask, xK_f), spawn "searchmonkey")
, ((mod4Mask .|. shiftMask .|. mod1Mask, xK_f), spawn "catfish")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_g), spawn "gimp")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_i), spawn "inkscape")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_m), spawn "vlc")
, ((mod4Mask .|. mod1Mask, xK_m), spawn "deadbeef")
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask .|. mod1Mask, xK_m), spawn "gedit ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml") -- edit openbox menu
, ((mod4Mask, xK_n), sendMessage ToggleStruts) -- toggle panel visability.
, ((mod4Mask .|. mod1Mask, xK_n), spawn "pkill tint2 && tint2") -- restart panel.
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask .|. mod1Mask, xK_n), spawn "gedit ~/.config/tint2/tint2rc") -- edit panel config
, ((mod4Mask, xK_o), spawn "openbox --replace") -- switch to openbox
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask .|. mod1Mask, xK_o), spawn "gedit ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml") -- edit openbox config
, ((mod4Mask .|. shiftMask, xK_p), spawn "gksudo gparted")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_p), spawn "gksudo gtkpacman")
-- , ((mod4Mask, xK_q), spawn "xmonad --restart")
, ((mod4Mask .|. mod1Mask, xK_t), spawn "tilda") -- launch tilda
, ((mod4Mask, xK_v), spawn "VirtualBox")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_x), spawn "xmonad --recompile") -- recompile xmonad
, ((mod4Mask .|. mod1Mask, xK_x), spawn "xmonad --restart") -- restart xmonad
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask .|. mod1Mask, xK_x), spawn "gedit ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs") -- edit xmonad config
, ((mod4Mask, xK_y), spawn "conky")
, ((mod4Mask .|. mod1Mask, xK_y), spawn "pkill conky && conky") --restart conky
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask .|. mod1Mask, xK_y), spawn "gedit ~/.conkyrc") --edit conky
, ((0, xK_Print), spawn "scrot '%Y-%m-%d--%s_$wx$h_scrot.png' -e 'mv $f ~/images/screenshots/ & gpicview ~/images/screenshots/$f'")
-- , ((modMask, next), nextWS)
-- , ((modMask, prev), prevWS)
, ((mod1Mask .|. controlMask, xK_Left), prevWS)
, ((mod1Mask .|. controlMask, xK_Right), nextWS)
-- , ((mod1Mask .|. controlMask .|. shiftMask, xK_Left), shiftToPrev)
-- , ((mod1Mask .|. controlMask .|. shiftMask, xK_Right), shiftToNext)
, ((mod1Mask .|. shiftMask, xK_Left), shiftToPrev)
, ((mod1Mask .|. shiftMask, xK_Right), shiftToNext)
--
, ((mod4Mask .|. mod1Mask, xK_h), sendMessage ShrinkSlave) -- %! Shrink a slave area
, ((mod4Mask .|. mod1Mask, xK_l), sendMessage ExpandSlave) -- %! Expand a slave area
]



--myLayout
myLayout = mouseResizableTile ||| mouseResizableTileMirrored ||| Full
where
-- default tiling algorithm partitions the screen into two panes
-- tiled = Tall nmaster delta ratio --need to figure out how to correctly impliment this line, if i want to adjust the nmaster, ratio and delta.... and i do very much want to adjust the delta. .. but its not essential, now that i have mouse resize

-- The default number of windows in the master pane
nmaster = 1

-- Default proportion of screen occupied by master pane
ratio = 1/2

-- Percent of screen to increment by when resizing panes
delta = 2/100
--

so anyways...

i love gnu|linux and xmonad, and now uzbl too.

probably indicative that i dont have a girlfriend right? lol.

Wednesday 10 November 2010

open source hardware.

i was reading the "200 things you can do with linux" article in the 200th issue celebration collectors edition of linux journal, when i came to #51, "Delete all the GPS location data from images." and i hit upon the idea of doing a search...

the GPS data on cameras has been an issue that's troubled me for some time, in full tinfoil hat mode, i just stopped taking pictures with my phone, knowing what an epic security hole it is, an invasion of privacy and empowers corporations and government agencies with far more knowledge about me and power over me than they deserve.

what was the idea for what i was going to search?
two searches really, open source hardware, and more to the point, open source cameras.

but surely, if i've just read that u can remove this data with linux, why bother finding greater recourse and remedy for avoiding it? quite simply, prevention is better than cure.

and what did i find?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware
&
http://www.opensourcecamera.org/
- and the link there-in. http://www3.elphel.com/

i wouldnt mind the GPS data going along with images if it was more public-interest oriented, rather than spy-agency oriented. I even rather like the idea, if it were more forthcoming, noticeably present in the interface, with notification of its presence, and the ability to turn it off. or even make it opt-in, instead of opt-out (which to my knowledge, isnt even an option on most phones/cameras, at least not without a convoluted removal process).

it's like kenedy said, "fully informed public". that's all this is really about.

democracy fails without this. when how something is made is a proprietary secret, it diminishes the power of the people. when it's normal use constitutes secondary secret uses not for the benefit of the user, it diminishes the power of the people. i love the idea of open-source hardware giving back that power. it's like it defeats the dark side of occulted & horded knowledge simply with the light of the freedom of knowledge. :) and we all benefit, even those who were in the dark, from lighting each other's candles. :)

Tuesday 26 October 2010

oh yeah, i forgot i blogged about my new arch

XD

well, yeah, i'll try to make the update as full, swift, and appropriate as possible.

the problems i experienced were entirely pebcak.

it all spawned from a simple typo when trying to install xmonad-contrib in pacman, and resultingly thinking xmonad-contrib was not there, so went on a long n pointless strugglesome adventure trying to get it to work with cabal and other crazy ideas.

once that issue was resolved, evrything became rather smooth again.

the arch linux wiki, is, by a great big gaping margin, the best wiki/documentation for any linux distribution i have had the pleasure to paruse.

i was told 5 days for a normal user, and was complimented (undeservingly i thought) that 3 days for me, to get an arch system from start to perfection.

well, perhaps only marginally like GW declaring "victory" in 2003 at preventing future generations of americans speaking iraqi, i declared success in under 21 hours.

... and i wasnt even trying! i was spending much of the time in chat, writing silly blogs and forum posts. and i went to sleep for 8 hours. and did a whole pile of other stuff.

but yeah, twas only slightly a premature declaration. i knew at that stage that i wantd to set up a couple shortcuts in gimp (ooh, big wow... what's that, not even 2 minutes) and use FEBE on my firefox (even taking my sweet time, thats still barely half an hour). but besides the two i knew about, there's still the occassional little niggle that i forgot about... installed a calculator today, for the an example of the sort of thing i'm talking about. small stuff, that's easily sorted with a quick "pacman -S".

ok, i admit... networkmanager configuration is a pain in the hoop. networky stuff has never been my strong suit.

but it's not like that's really a necessity. i just wanted the little luxury of having nm-applet on the go again. soooo not important. ... in a way, that's even antithical to a a system worthy of the accolade of "perfection". you know how many mbs that is just for that one little feature? with all the things it requires... it's waaay into double figures!, and thats a decimal place too far for my liking, on the scale of features per kilobyte.

anyways, suffice to say, it's been days now that i'm happily tootling along in my new arch install, doing the occassional pacman -Syu, and generally getting up to all the stuff i use a computer for... some graphics here, some research there, some discussing things here there and everywhere, some audio sample creation and editing, some website fiddling... and so on.

the experience has completely dispelled some myths i had let grow in my thoughts about arch, and the archway. it's all rather nice. only networkmanager managed to coax out some grunts of frustration from me.

Saturday 23 October 2010

a long way to go and a short time to get there, we shouldnt have stopped for a picnic.

okies...

first sign of trouble in my new arch install:

i copied over my perfectly functional (accidental pun!) xmonad.hs from my previous system (ubuntu-based crunchbang)

and i get:[code]

$ xmonad --recompile
Error detected while loading xmonad configuration file: /home/digit/.xmonad/xmonad.hs

xmonad.hs:7:7:
Could not find module `XMonad.Config.Desktop':
Use -v to see a list of the files searched for.

Please check the file for errors.

[/code]

some time later, and some fiddling with cabal, and failing to get xmonad-contrib...

seems it's likely missing C libs.

so i try n get libX, libXext and libXinerama. (as the xmonad C requirements are stated here: http://xmonad.org/intro.html )

presuming libX = libX11, since simply libX alone is nowhere to be found, this one is up to date.

libXext install attempt returns (much the same for merely "libX" and libXinerama):[code]error: 'libXext': could not find or read package[/code]

so am i thinking arch has different names for these packages?

.... aaaah! lowercase "X"s.

ok, so i've updated those three now,
...and "cabal install xonad-contrib" tells me:[code]# cabal install xmonad-contrib
Resolving dependencies...
Configuring X11-xft-0.3...
cabal: pkg-config version >=0.9.0 is required but it could not be found.
cabal: Error: some packages failed to install:
X11-xft-0.3 failed during the configure step. The exception was:
ExitFailure 1
xmonad-contrib-0.9.1 depends on X11-xft-0.3 which failed to install.
[/code]
so... "X11-xft-0.3" it says. :/ some searching later, n i presume it's after "haskell-x11-xft"
...

so i install that.... where was i now?
/me feels like he's starting to contract some disease probably called something like bizantianitits. :P

ok, lets try it from the top again... or, work backwards through what i've come to at least.

the xft was needed for the xmonad-contrib, ah, that's right...

/me tries "cabal install xmonad-contrib" again.

and we have much action! yay! scrolling text! XD "nn of 180"

bkadoctaj my old friend... you're right, i am learning a lot with using arch... i'm learning it's a lot of fuss!

XD


so anyways, i started writing this in a text editor, thinking it was gonna be a forum post asking for help... but now it's looking more like my typical blog post. XD

so, i may as well elaborate on the story much more, comforted by the freedom my blog intro blurb caveat/disclaimer gives me to ramble endlessly...

...though i wont, bcause, the background jist of this is here...

i'm trying to get my perfect arch setup in 24 hours.

bkadoctaj said it takes 3 days from scrath to perfection.

___day one: scratch.
___day two: to.
_day three: perfection.

and he said it normally takes 5 days, but he was knocking a couple days off for me, percieving some level of expertise, which i think an accolade i'm worthy of.


.. but still, even with my leisserly pace through the first parts, i'm now determined to get it all up as i want in 24 hours... and that includes the 8 hours i was asleep, all the time spent dilly-dallying in chat, and all the time spent writing this load. XD

... i better get back to it.

my "cabal install xmonad-contrib" is complete, and now hopefully, when i attempt my next "xmonad --recompile" all will be well, and i'll be using my own config, rather than the more stoic default.

... i'll leave the rest of this adventure for the next post. :)

Thursday 21 October 2010

pimped you a desktop for great good.

:)

i've been busy.

:)

some might say not the most productive use of my time... but what do they know.

i've been learning, and enhancing my skillset, all the while improving my desktop work environment for greater expediency.

it's that old cliche, that linux users spend 51 weeks configuring their desktop, so they can do their years work in an hour. XD

so...

i have xmonad back on the go.

it's very nice.

it's very nice as it comes outta the box, very useable as is.

however...

it's even nicer once a few customisations are added, most pertinently, some shortcuts for launching applications and doing other bits n bobs.

what pleases me most about my xmonad configuration just now though... is not xmonad itself...

it's that i have now got it working perfectly with my favorite panel application, tint2.

tint2 is another immensely customizable app, like xmonad is.

.... me likes the customizability. ^_^

i've tint2 set up much the same as i had it in openbox. ... um, pretty much identically actually.

and also ... i have a simple conky working nicely with tint2 and xmonad too, simply informing me of my network up and down speeds, regardless of which connection i'm using (wired or wireless), in the same space.

here's one bit of this setup i'm especially chuffed with...

i have a shortcut to toggle the panel visibility.

:)_:)_:)__:)___:)______:)_________:)_____________:)_____________________:)

here's a couple links to threads i made marking my little landmark accomplishments. ^_^
http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/post/89967/#p89967
http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic/9965/my-xmonad-adventures/

of course, there's all the keyboard shortcuts too... and that's (besides xmonad's inherent greatness) where the real productivity expedience boon comes in.

... much as i had it in my openbox configuration. :)

clever little systematic logic that makes it intuitive.

i didnt want to disrupt the xmonad vi-alike controls, so qwerthjlk were all out. the rest though, i considered fair game for remapping. i still might remap q... i dont like how risky it is having the equivalent of ctrl alt bksp (to restart the graphics server, and thus lose everything being worked on in gui) being so close (one key away) from other regularly used shortcuts.

so, the tux button (or "windows button" to the man on the street) i use as my primary modifier, so it doesnt clash with some applications which use alt. a combination with a single key would start an application, like g for the GNU Image Manipulation Program, or D for Gedit (since E is taken up for multi monitor setups, and there's no need for a "show desktop" shortcut in xmonad).

editing configs happens with a triple modifier, of ctrl, tux and alt... and the key of whatever is being modified, F2 and F3 for gmrun, x for xmonad, n for the tint2 panel... i havnt fully decided on where to put conky yet, having just added it, and already using c for communications (starting pidgin and skype, and perhaps mumble if i start using it too), and of course k is taken up... it's likely going to be y isnt it.

/me presses ctrl,tux,alt,x and makes a few edits quickly... ... and tux,alt,x the new changes are in effect.

:) there we go, just a quick few seconds, no having to type in a file location, no having to navigate to the file. :) conky start, restart and edit keys now set up. :)

and as well as the triple modifier for editing something, where you wish to control (ctrl) the system (tux) to alter (alt) it [(see the intuitive logic?)], i've a restart on a two key modifier of tux, alt, and then the same coresponding key. so i can restart the panel after making edits simply with tux, alt, n, which does a "pkill tint2 && tint2". i was very pleased first time i tried this in xmonad and it worked, thinking the way it uses a spawnpipe for it might cause complications, but no, it was simple n straight forward. which was nice.

anyways, i'll let you explore the rest if you're intereseted. ^_^ (hehe, yeah, i still write this as if someone will read it some day. lol. if you do, please, leave some comments. thnx.)

here's the configs code:

tint2:
#---------------------------------------------
# TINT2 CONFIG FILE
#---------------------------------------------

#---------------------------------------------
# BACKGROUND AND BORDER
#---------------------------------------------
rounded = 0
border_width = 1
background_color = #333333 19
border_color = #999999 70

rounded = 0
border_width = 1
background_color = #000000 00
border_color = #000000 00

rounded = 0
border_width = 1
background_color = #ffffff 60
border_color = #ffffff 99

#---------------------------------------------
# PANEL
#---------------------------------------------
panel_layer=top
panel_monitor = all
panel_position = bottom right
panel_size = 90% 19
panel_margin = 0 0
panel_padding = -1 -1 7
font_shadow = 0
panel_background_id = 2
#wm_menu = 1

#---------------------------------------------
# TASKBAR
#---------------------------------------------
taskbar_mode = multi_desktop
#taskbar_mode = single_desktop
taskbar_padding = -1 -1 -1
taskbar_background_id = 1

#---------------------------------------------
# TASKS
#---------------------------------------------
task_icon = 1
task_text = 0
task_maximum_size = 144 19
task_centered = 1
task_padding = -1 2
task_font = sans 8
task_font_color = #111111 100
task_active_font_color = #ffffff 100
task_background_id = 1
task_active_background_id = 3

#---------------------------------------------
# SYSTRAYBAR
#---------------------------------------------
systray_padding = -1 -1 -1
systray_background_id = 1

#---------------------------------------------
# CLOCK
#---------------------------------------------
time1_format = %H:%M:%S %A %d %B
time1_font = sans 13
#time2_format = %A %d
#time2_font = sans 8
clock_font_color = #ffffff 100
clock_padding = 0 0
clock_background_id = 1
clock_lclick_command = xclock
clock_rclick_command = zenity --calendar

#---------------------------------------------
# BATTERY
#---------------------------------------------
battery = 1
battery_low_status = 10
battery_low_cmd = notify-send "battery low"
bat1_font = sans 7
bat2_font = sans 7
battery_font_color = #ffffff 100
battery_padding = 0 0
battery_background_id = 1

#---------------------------------------------
# MOUSE ACTION ON TASK
#---------------------------------------------
mouse_middle = close
mouse_right = none
mouse_scroll_up = toggle
mouse_scroll_down = iconify

conky:

background yes
use_xft yes
xftfont Sans:size=8
xftalpha 1
update_interval 0.3
total_run_times 0
own_window yes
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_type desktop
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
double_buffer yes
minimum_size 1 1
maximum_width 134
draw_outline no
draw_borders no
draw_shades no
draw_graph_borders yes
default_color ff0000
#default_shade_color 000000
default_outline_color 000000
alignment bottom_left
gap_x 0
gap_y -108
no_buffers yes
uppercase no
cpu_avg_samples 2
override_utf8_locale no

TEXT
${voffset -6}${color #ffff00}${downspeedgraph 9,135 wlan0}
${voffset -4}${color}${upspeedgraph 9,135 wlan0}
${voffset -22}${color #00ff00}${downspeedgraph 9,135 eth0}
${voffset -4}${color}${upspeedgraph 9,135 eth0}
${voffset -22}${color #00ffff}${downspeedgraph 9,135 eth1}
${voffset -4}${color}${upspeedgraph 9,135 eth1}

and last, but certainly not least:
the xmonad.hs config, my pride n joy. lol.
import XMonad
import XMonad.Hooks.DynamicLog
import XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks
import XMonad.Util.Run(spawnPipe)
import XMonad.Util.EZConfig(additionalKeys)
import XMonad.Hooks.EwmhDesktops
import XMonad.Config.Desktop
import System.IO

-- initially created with help of: http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Xmonad/Config_archive/John_Goerzen%27s_Configuration
-- use "xmonad --recompile" to check it's syntactically correct if making changes (better than just modQ)
-- list of key codes http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Xmonad/Key_codes
-- may also prove useful for some keys and commands http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/X11/1.4.5/doc/html/Graphics-X11-Types.html
-- may want to encorporate: http://xmonad.org/xmonad-docs/xmonad-contrib/XMonad-Actions-GridSelect.html
myManageHook = composeAll
[ className =? "Gimp" --> doFloat
, className =? "pidgin" --> doFloat
, className =? "skype" --> doFloat
, className =? "vlc" --> doFloat
, className =? "tilda" --> doFloat
, className =? "Vncviewer" --> doFloat
]

main = do
xmproc <- spawnPipe "/usr/bin/tint2 /home/digit/.config/tint2/tint2rc" xmonad $ ewmh desktopConfig { manageHook = manageDocks <+> myManageHook -- make sure to include myManageHook definition from above
<+> manageHook desktopConfig
, layoutHook = avoidStruts $ layoutHook defaultConfig
, modMask = mod4Mask -- Rebind Mod to the Windows key
} `additionalKeys`
[ ((mod4Mask, xK_F2), spawn "gmrun")
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask .|. mod1Mask, xK_F2), spawn "gedit ~/.gmrunrc")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_F3), spawn "~/.config/dmenu/dmenu-bind.sh")
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask .|. mod1Mask, xK_F3), spawn "gedit ~/.config/dmenu/dmenu-bind.sh") -- edit dmenu
, ((mod4Mask, xK_F4), kill)
, ((mod4Mask, xK_F5), spawn "xfce4-appfinder")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_F6), spawn "xkill")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_a), spawn "audacity")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_b), spawn "firefox")
, ((mod4Mask .|. mod1Mask, xK_b), spawn "seamonkey")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_c), spawn "pidgin & skype")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_d), spawn "gedit")
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask, xK_d), spawn "gksudo gedit")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_f), spawn "pcmanfm")
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask, xK_f), spawn "gksudo pcmanfm")
, ((mod4Mask .|. shiftMask, xK_f), spawn "searchmonkey")
, ((mod4Mask .|. shiftMask .|. mod1Mask, xK_f), spawn "catfish")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_g), spawn "gimp")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_i), spawn "inkscape")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_m), spawn "vlc")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_n), sendMessage ToggleStruts) -- toggle panel visability.
, ((mod4Mask .|. mod1Mask, xK_n), spawn "pkill tint2 && tint2") -- restart panel.
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask .|. mod1Mask, xK_n), spawn "gedit ~/.config/tint2/tint2rc") -- edit panel config
, ((mod4Mask .|. shiftMask, xK_p), spawn "gksudo gparted")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_p), spawn "gksudo synaptic")
-- , ((mod4Mask, xK_q), spawn "xmonad --restart")
, ((mod4Mask, xK_x), spawn "xmonad --recompile") -- recompile xmonad
, ((mod4Mask .|. mod1Mask, xK_x), spawn "xmonad --restart") -- restart xmonad
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask .|. mod1Mask, xK_x), spawn "gedit ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs") -- edit xmonad config
, ((mod4Mask, xK_y), spawn "conky")
, ((mod4Mask .|. mod1Mask, xK_y), spawn "pkill conky && conky") --restart conky
, ((mod4Mask .|. controlMask .|. mod1Mask, xK_y), spawn "gedit ~/.conkyrc") --edit conky
, ((0, xK_Print), spawn "scrot '%Y-%m-%d--%s_$wx$h_scrot.png' -e 'mv $f ~/images/screenshots/ & gpicview ~/images/screenshots/$f'")
]

i was gonna add in the dmenu and gmrun for an added bonus, but then realised, in quite a shock, that of course, the key combinations i've chosen conflict with (and dont supercede) the switching of tty. lol. oops, oh well. ^_^ its not like i ever really need to edit them anyway.

well, i hope u get even a millionth of a kick outta these as i did making them and do using them. :)

Sunday 10 October 2010

'nix still got it, wastedartist lub'n it

THIS IS OLD!
meant to post this .. and finish writing it ages ago.
you have been warned.

makin the wastedartist.com website as tight n minimal as i've been trying to make the software i've been writing, n now i think of it, also the configuration and component selection, so far that i've seleceted at least, it's all kept nice n lean.  it only goes on n on when there's the real content, not just the tool, meaning ...  the elaborate intricate images, audio, and ramblings n rantings.

anyways, waffle aside... 'nix make me happy.  live with free software for a few years and you really get to mold it into something ever more to your tastes n needs.  freedom allows that.  mmm.  community allows that.  mmm.  sharing allows that.  mmm.  realising the mutual exponentially beneficial amplifications from the synergy of co-operatipon for the commons far exceeds the ... the...   oh, i thought i was going to come over all eloquent there...  the... shitey short sighted selfish shitey.   ***  explanation fail.  pebcak error.  rant overload. 

incase you're unfamiliar, when i say 'nix, i mean, gnu/linux, but just asi used to use (and sometimes still use) "linux" as the catch all for all free & Open Source software, i sometimes use 'nix for that to, clumsily being unfortunately ignorant to the great many other interesting free and/or open source and/or freedomware projects.  *deap breath*

see why people dont know about it?   it's elaborate minefeild marathon.   gotta dance a little political legal lawful philosophical jig of cha-cha of some kind before any sense comes of what all this "freedomware"( +etc) stuff is all about n why it's of importance and benefit (or whatever other motivation).

'nix'ness, the freedom culture that's been around through the internet since even long before the internet, is seeping into the system, ** "there's nothing to do, just keep your foot down" ** (said the telly in the background)...  and as it seeps into the system, intricacy and dynamism of ogranica of life of of of...  ***

explanation fail.  pebcak error.  rant overload. 

you see, free software is far less inclined to do that because there are more people in the community with their eye on the code and it's functionality than any company... of all companies combined probably...  the more the merrier, its free for all, woo!


"computer, give me a level 17 mutation on my bioactive sandwich special preference 1, ... "

zap!

" om nom ack. just give me my prefered sandwich again actually thnx.  u can take this one back.  that's what i get for being adventurous."

Saturday 9 October 2010

squishboom, toorox, n stuff.

so, this week i have been mostly.... procrastinating.

XD

after a quick n speedy throw out of the dirty gimpstick, i thought the alpha7 of witch would just fly out in less than a week too. that didnt happen. partly because in classic typicalness for me, i got distracted with the thousand and one other interlinking interests i have.

and... ok, so my procrastinating has been a bit worse than that if im honest.

i installed a load of games to try.

so i been playing games... maybe only half an hour to a couple per day... but that still feels like a lot to me considering that, apart from my diablo2 addiction that sometimes resurfaces, i dont really play games anymore.

chat too, has been a bit of a distraction, as it always is.

squishboom? well, technically, i still use it every day... but i'm no longer happy with the idea of basing it on the lts release of ubuntu.... 9.04 was great, 9.10 introduced many problems, 10.04 as is, hasnt really corrected those problems, and introduced new ones.... but who knows, maybe it gets better as it updates? seems funny that it's now become the ultimate back burner project that i dabble with and research for, n yet, there's me with my squishboom page and sat alone in the #squishboom in irc.freenode.net.

so i've started doing some more distro hopping....

kinda itching to get rid of sabayon... despite it's awesomeness. maybe this is some kind of masochistic subconscious behaviour, but i want something less nice, than sabayon. y'know, like when jeremey clarckson says he wants the car on the right because it's less good. ...more fun.

and speaking of fun... i'm even finding myself looking at funtoo pages often.

funtoo + metro ?= .... funtoobang!

yeah, i luuuurv the idea of gentoo base to my crunchbang-alike interfaces n app selection.

and i lurv that is sounds like fun to bang. ;) ... there's levels. ;) XD

however, a newer kid on the block has really caught my eye now that they have a GNOME version as well as KDE.

TOOROX.

it's gentoo based, live/installer... and i've installed both the latest versions. kde and gnome. kde over the gnome install at the moment, but i think i'll go back to the gnome version because kde makes me want to vomit and go on homicidal rampages.... so... i shant be sticking around with anything kde4 has touched.

it's no where near as painful to stick bits of gnome in a lightweight setup than it is to stick in bits of kde4.

but i hear even gnome are planning their own self sabotaging major upgrade soon too.

so glad i like my lightweight systems.

i even asked on the toorox forum if there was any plans for a lightweight version... no responce last i looked... but that was only short ago.

toorox has so impressed me, beyond all (few) other gentoo based distributions i've seen. it's up there with the best... sabayon and pentoo. [edit~ and of course gentoo itse;f... um, but only outta respect... it's live cd's are a bit... standard.] i still have the name "papug" in the back of my mind, wanting to check it out again sometime. but for now... i'm gushing over toorox.

now if only i could drag myself away from my "crunchayon" setup in my sabayon 4.2 minimal install, that i've been using for... ages, on my always-on-workstation, then i could get around to reinstalling toorox gnome version.


strangely, for all the beating-myself-up i do over not working... like falling asleep, doing excersize and general down-time, i have been making some nice changes n developments for wastedartist.com too. it's looking a little more plush. it's index page is now more in keeping with the general simple navigation theme i'll be employing throughout the site, and, more relevently to the intended topic of this blog.... it now links to some of my code projects
( daskeb, and qalator ), and distro projects too.

i've also been practicing my conky and gtk/ob theming skills. v.useful for a free software distro producer. ;)

still, i've yet to find the money lust. ... oh well, looks like another day of being a financial lepper. XD

u could always... flattr me, like, for trying so hard. XD

i even found time to make progress towards my much more complicated qalator2 script... but no holding your breath for that one...

on my agenda next is:

witch alpha7
(just gotta fine tune a couple scripts, n then figure out how to get scrotwm installed from source for that pesky distro that didnt have it in it's repo yet, but besides that is perfect for the next rowan)

gimpstick2 pure
i kinda made it, but it's one to be fussier over than the gimpstick dirty. it really takes great restraint and vigilance, and walking on tight ropes, and dodging crocodiles, to get this release out. very constrictive series of proceedures to fulfill to ensure it's done right, to my high standards for what the pure gimp aught to be like.

the rest of wasted artist's freesoftware online-commerce solution.
&
qalator2

learn more programming to be able to do more, more, more, more.




so as much as i'm gunning for toorox on my workstation now... i've got to go check out archbang's latest, dl'd it twice a while ago, shortly after its release, once to each machine... but i've yet to find/make the time for it yet.

i might consider using it for my laptop... at least on it's small partition first... n see if it's stable n robust enough for me to push it around, like i do with my ubuntu based squisboom.... n we all know archbang will be wice as fast n use a 7th the ram. so... it seems like a no-brainer, especially if u then add my list of complaints about canonical and ubuntu... but... there's something to be said for flocking with a crowd of noobs, lol, they're well catered for, and never need learn their machine.... doh! no! that's ever-noob ultra dumb thinking there. smash the plastic box, see the machine! rwar!

Wednesday 8 September 2010

more flattry

just discovered Överallt

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/181745/

http://overallt.p4ul.info/

supposedly, it lets you add flattr simply by adding:



to ... wherever. and so long as it's being viewed with your overallt enhanced browser, you'll be able to see the flattr button.

i've just installed it to see if it works... it's far from ideal, considering the end user needs to have a plugin installed in order to even see your flattr button, but at least it's currently sparing me from having to bash my head off the labyrinth of all the API stuff, trying to get the whole thing automated (i.e. not having to manually create each button).

to ... wherever. and so long as it's being viewed with your overallt enhanced browser, you'll be able to see the flattr button.

i've just installed it to see if it works... it's far from ideal, considering the end user needs to have a plugin installed in order to even see your flattr button, but at least it's currently sparing me from having to bash my head off the labyrinth of all the API stuff, trying to get the whole thing automated (i.e. not having to manually create each button).


edit:

:/ fail. fail on the button coming up in a timely manner (if at all) and fail on me trying to click on the overallt creator's button.

back to figuring out how to automate integration with my site n so on, or back to making each button manually. :/

constrained update.

after seeing again, that TED talk where the guys explains why you shouldnt tell people about the project's you're working on as it saps their momentum, this update will barely even give you the headlines of what i've been working on recently.


much parusing of other potential bases for my various projects.  puppy n slitaz getting most attention.


a lil bit of learning more C (did hello world again, and the next couple steps in learning C), tho i still totally cant do anything in C yet, i suspect next time i give it a stab, i'll be hitting the magic "third time lucky" and might progress further with a more sturdy base to my learnins.


some crazyness where i once again wiped my entire hd on my laptop, and am now sitting in a fresh crunchbang-turned-squishboom to help me further develop "pris" (digit's Post ReInstallation Script) so it more fully completes the whole transition, so that when i do finally become happy enough with it to give it an official public release, running pris on crunchbang will result in as close to the same thing i want to release.

pris now includes more configs updates (still more to be done) and has do-release-upgrade added at the end of the script.


aaaand most pleasingly, i've even found time to make a few more ditties of artwork.  :)  GIMPage mostly, havnt played around with blender for a while.  and am again finding myself drawn to wanting to learn more inkscape and even more imagemagick...  havnt done much o that yet tho thnx to all this squishboom/pris development and witch research.


tbh tho...

i really really need to start putting flattr buttons on more things... or better yet start doing stuff that earns me some financial income...  on zero income at the moment, living off charity of others.    .... or even better yet, the whole world wakes up from this "money is essential" delusion and we all become responsible enough to be let loose with free energy.   ... no, i mean genuinely FREE energy.   not this "we built a giant turbine and you can pay us money to get the energy we are siphoning off from the environment" crap.   i mean freeeeeee energy.    what's that i hear the naysayers saying?  "there's no such thing as a free meal"?  energy-tycoon propaganda bulderdash!  a half-truth if ever there were.

the free energy movement people, from seorn to john hutchison, from tesla to tom valone, from willhelm reich to william kamkwamba, there's plenty stuff out there to help liberate us completely from energy dependence, and even financial dependence.

okies, i really could rant about that for days.  ...n this is supposed to be a linuxy blog.  ;)   so, i shall create an interesting segway back to it...

all this free energy stuff... get the schematics and plans... and you can make it yourself.   better to do it sooner rather than later, as there are moves by some BLPS with dominator separationist mindsets to prevent us being empowered to make such things, to take away the very tools and materials needed, which would mean, if we really wanted to make such things again, we'd be either back to scratch (from smelting ore and onward), or frugally scavenging around landfills for parts... which might not be such a bad thing anyways.   inconvenient n grotty... but it'd at least help clean up the world a little.  lol.    anyways, yeah, the plans for such free energy devices are often made freely available to the public, released as open-source hardware!

which reminds me of another piece of open-source hardware i learned of recently...  the Ben Nano-Note.

it is a teensie, tiny, peedie, mini, micro, nano, palm-sized, fully x86 compatible, PC.   it has a proper linux command line, and even a gui, and it costs around / less than $100.

and it's open-source hardware!!!!

this means you can go check out the design plans, check to see if there's anything dodgey going on in them, and even take the plans and go make one yourself!   or use the plans to inspire your own hardware projects.

now imagine if we had free energy too...  and then imagine we have the next generation of some reprap/mendel, and then imagine we have sussed out how to harness the fusion from devices like the geet engine so we can produce whatever periodic elements we need, and then something to help process these elements into reprap-able materials, .... et viola!   we have completely free de-centralised means of manufacturing!   some voice command interfaces and viola, it'd be as simple as is in star trek, walking upto a hole in the wall and stating what it is you'd like made.   no bs (bullshit/bad-science) proprietary restrictions on the code/patterns available for construction, just make it n go!  :)

hehe, sry, i've ranted on this before, i know, but if ever there was a good idea worth spreading... this is it.

infact, yeah, if i were to give a ted talk, this is what i'd rant about for 20 minutes, and i'd intentionally incite inspiration, get people motivated, employ various psychelogical trickery tools to coax people to participate in this... because if i were just ranting on about some cool project i, or others were working on, or just some vapid idea thats barely being worked on at all having just plucked a few disparate pieces and put them together to form an idea, then i'd be counter productively sapping motivation from the project.   just like the guy said in that other ted talk, as i mentioned at the start of this blog post.  :)

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Wednesday 28 July 2010

dd CHAAAAAARGE!

i'm about ready to wipe my
nasty infected, neglected, rejected, windoze, n what does it do,
it gives my wine a flue,
just right before she goes.

...
that's it... anything else i've missed in my epic dvd backupiing over the past wee while can wait... this is it... i'm going in... dd! CHAAAARGE!



next pc i swear... no more windows tax!


here we go, wheeeeee. joy!

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1

(KIND WARNING ^^ DONT ENTER THAT INTO YOUR TERMINAL AS ROOT UNLESS U WANT TO WIPE YOUR FIRST HD'S FIRST PARTITIONS CONTENT IRRETRIEVABLY. SERIOUSLY DONT! NO! STOP.)

dd is ... godly.


also, never actually charge into issuing a dd command to your computer, heck no... that kind of thing demands a bit of a check proceedure to follow...

1, are you sure that's the right command?
2, are you sure that's the right way around, in file, out file?
3, are you sure that's the right command?
4, are you sure that's the right location for the in file?
5, are you sure that's the right location for the out file?
6, are you sure that's the right options and arguments?
7, slap your self in the face,
8, are you sure that's the right command?
9, are you sure that's the right way around, in file, out file?
10, are you sure that's the right command?
11, are you sure that's the right location for the in file?
12, are you sure that's the right location for the out file?
13, are you sure that's the right options and arguments?
14, are you sure you have them the right way around?
15, are you sure you know what it means by if?
16, are you sure you understand the consequences of of?
17, have you got the syntax right?
18, are you sure you have the syntax right?
19, have you double checked with a separate source if you have the syntax right?
20, have you checked to see if you really do have the if and of the right way around?
21, are you really sure you want to do this?
22, you have checked to make absolutely certain the only copy of the bloomingfeild report isnt left in what you are about to destroy with the of?
23, have you made certain this is what you want to do?
24, have you made sure this is what you want to do?
25, read 27, then 26.
26, walk away.
27, and then come back after doing 26.
28, are you sure you have the right locations and the right order of in file and out file??
...

some time later..


124, if you answered yes to all of 83 to 123, are you now fully certain of all the criteria you have to be certain of?
125, are you sure?
126, are you sure?
127, are you sure?
128, are you sure?
129, are you sure?
130, are you sure you are sure?
131, are you sure that if the next question were about what you originally were sure of, you'd be able to competently and accurately and correctly answer it?
132, what were you originally sure of?
133, are you sure?
134, where does that take it from?
135, where does that put it to?
136, are you sure?
137, repeat the now familiar walk away and come maneuver which you should by now have completed at least three times, possibly seven.
138, cup your face in your hands and say "am i sure?"
139, repeat, but this time, shake your head as you say it. did it feel any less certain?
140, are you certain of anything, is that chair really there, are any of us, is it all imagination, illusion or mere projection?
141, will anyone die if you get this wrong?
142, are you sure you have fully made sense of what's the in file and what's the out file?
143, did you just copy a command you found in a websearch and have just been winging it by answering yes to every question?
144, if you answered yes to 143, go back to 47 and repeat the walk away, pause, come back maneuver on
...

some time later,

219, looking at it still sat there waiting for your password, focus... are you sure? if sure, proceed to 220, if unsure, return to question 151.
220, you've already made the decision, now you have to understand why.
221, do you understand why? if not, go back to 25.
222, and you've still got time left to ensure the machine will be free to run this for the forseeable future without any impinging consequence?
223, and you're sure you're sure you've got the if and of the right way around?
224, and certain you want/need it done?
225, ok then, press enter,

YOU ARE NOW THE DATA DESTROYER MASTER! DATA DESTROYER IS NOW RUNNING!

226. ok, just um... wait, or whatever... do something else for a while.
227, look around and see if u can find anything that indicates you got it wrong, and you've done something horribly wrong.
228, if you find something, run through questions 125-130, as if you were asking yourself if you are sure you need to do a drastic abort.
229, if you didnt find anything, keep looking for a while, until you are fairly confident you are past the point of no return.
230, await paitently for it to finish (which may indeed be ages), and repeat 227.
231, job done.




but today, i think instead of the checks, i'm just going to go, GUNG HO! CHAAAAARGE!

Saturday 24 July 2010

feed the contributor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoYL4R3Te2s

just been enjoying this video about all linux's weakspots and what can we do about it.

payment systems, like flattr might help add some of the encouragement he speaks of.

"like to eat"

that's basically the primary issue behind this need for money...

how about we cut out the middle man tho?

the room we use for our computer, we aught fill with vertical hydroponics on every wall space, to provide food. berries, grapes, toms, aubergines, peppers, melons, and on and on, all grow really well from hydroponics.

yeah, ok, sure, that costs money too, it doesnt completely avert the issue, but it does make the whole thing more efficient.

more cost effective, economical, ecological, environmental, yada yada... the benefits of this knock on in numerous interesting ways, for one example, the oxygen produced and the carbon dioxide absorbed by the plants helps to keep the human component of your computer running well, and when that component runs well, there are less pebcak errors, and the world becomes a better place.

Monday 12 July 2010

this week, i 'av mostly been... blendering

http://omploader.org/vNHZvNw/picoconstructionpreview000.png
 http://omploader.org/vNHcwYQ/picoconstructionpreview002.png
http://omploader.org/vNHd3bg/picoconstructionpreview003.png


just a little ditty i've been spending a little portion on each day.  in an inspired moment, i sketched it out on paper first, and since then, i've been rediscovering blender... blender 2.5alpha2 to be precise.   ...and it's way easier and flowing than 2.49b  ... although... there's a minor niggle of window pane management... havnt figured out how to close new panes yet.


anyways, this little bike/car thing... i'm working on doing it right, so that this can be an actual design template.   it's still utterly early on in the construction...  just the chassis, tires, window/door, mudgaurds and much of the steering rig-up so far.   but i've loads of cunning ideas for it.


the vision i had for it, is for low-down, maximum visibility, component simplicity, down-force, form following function, a real driver's experience kind of deal, everything compact and lean, much like my dream linux distro.   i am often thinking on such analogies of distros to cars. 


every little bit i put on it, i tweak and re-tweak many times over.
not seen in these preview renders is the skeleton humanoid frame, hunkered down in his race-ready seating possition.


i suppose in some ways, this has been partly inspired by my friend's new lotus elise, which i've been out in a couple of times.  lotus's general modus opperandi, as i recall jeremy clarkson once saying, "is to simplify, and add lightness".  this thing is looking set to be so light, i've had to be thinking where i could ADD weight, just to make sure the thing will stay on the ground or have enough weight above the powered wheel.


engine-wise, i've still to get to that part.
i'm not the most nerdy when it comes to traditional combustion engines, but as you might expect from a free software geek, i dont mind reading up about more exotic options.  so besides the GEET implosion engine, and electric engines, i am actually very very keen on the idea of those combustion engines which instead of using pistons and combustion chambers that are rather 1 dimensional, and which the energy then has to be mechanically transfered yada yada.... there's those mad ones that are um....  cyclical...  the explosion chamber is integrated more deeply into the whole thing, and the rotary motion is perpetually pushed in one direction... around and around, rather than pistons having to waste energy on fighting the inertia of back and forth... i'll have to look them up again on http://peswiki.com/  ( http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Engines )so i remember who came up with them, and what they're called.   suffice to say, you get to fit the power of a normal car engine, into the size of a cd-rom drive.   ...so i was thinking of upscaling it a bit more.  ;)



ideally, i'd just throw some john hutchinson inspired zero-point energy battery/generator devices in it, and maybe some unity bending power ramp up stuff, but i dont want to make myself any bigger a target for corporate / secret-gov / OPEC / etc b[w]ankers to take me out.  ;D


but anyways, i do like the idea of only one gear... in which case electric would be the way to go... and then that would add all the weight i want, i could pepper the floor and rear with heavy batteries....   :/



oh it's good being free to play n dream up these things.

( /me considers including a dozen talk links from ted.com focussing on the value of play, and experimentation, and goal-less development, and exploration of ideas, and what incentives do, and what motivates people...  but that might get in the way o all i really wanted to focus on for this ramble...  blender & my little fun ditty )

track-day, road-car, or mere concept-car... i dont mind, i just like the creative process.  :)   the inspired evolution of ideas, the spontaneous a-ha ideas, the reveling in imagination, the hands-on manifestation, the...    you get the idea.  :)

i'll likely be back with updates to this.

Wednesday 7 July 2010

hypnobash. XD

if you have leafpad installed (reccomended not open, especially with unsaved files), you can run this from terminal, or from gmrun, or whatever the kde version of gmrun is (krun?), just simply copy and paste.

(if u dont have leafpad, u can find/replace all instances of "leafpad" for gedit, or kedit/kwrite/kate, or mousepad, or whatever lightweight gui text editor you have.)


echo look into my eyes >> hypno1 && leafpad hypno1 & sleep 2 && pkill leafpad && echo you are feeling very sleepy >> hypno2 && leafpad hypno2 & sleep 2 && pkill leafpad && sleep1 && echo "you are falling asleep" >> hypno3 && leafpad hypno3 & sleep 2 && pkill leafpad && sleep 1 && echo "now you are under my spell and will do whatever i command" >> hypno4 && leafpad hypno4 & sleep 2 && pkill leafpad && sleep 1 && "echo you are now a squid wearing a tutu performaing for the queen of the mushroom people" >> hypno5 && leafpad hypno5 & sleep 4 && pkill leafpad && sleep 1 && echo "wide awake now, wakey wakey, all good, fully awake, refreshed, there we go." >> hypno6 && leafpad hypno6 & sleep 3 && pkill leafpad && sleep 2 && echo "you had a dance or performance you said you were going to do...?" >> hypno7 && leafpad hypno7 & sleep 4 && pkill leafpad && sleep 12 && echo "aaaand sleep" >> hypno8 && leafpad hypno8 & sleep 3 && pkill leafpad && echo "echo you will now email your passwords to theduckis@gmx.com" >> hypno9 && leafpad hypno9 & sleep 4 && pkill leafpad && rm hypno*


XD   something like that.  XD   just a fun idea that'd help uhh... optimise your computer to be 4 times faster.   XD

Tuesday 6 July 2010

an odd M$ phonecall

an indian voice just called my dad, claiming he was from microsoft, he asked to confirm my dad's identity, and then informed him "there's been a complaint", and hung up.

my dad then checked what the last caller's number was, and the BT voice from 1471 said the callers number is "01234567890", then when trying to ring this number, it rings twice, and then another bt auto voice says there's no such number, and to try again.

   :/   ... 
  
   seriously,
  
   wtf?
  
      are these veiled threats to households detected to be using something other than M$ windows?  some prank?  a mistake?





edit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/phone-scam-india-call-centres

Sunday 4 July 2010

let me introduce freedomware (like "linux") to you...

it's not windows, and it's not mac. it's not even proprietary!
gnu|linux lets you do what you want with it. which obviously cant be said for windows and mac. it's free. liberated software.

millions of people all around the world are contributing to this kind of free software, where ideas are shared freely, for the benefit of all, rather than hoarded, for the profit of the few. this has been going on for some time now, and with increasing numbers of users and contributors alike, which has caused such free software to far surpass that of the commercial proprietary (hoarding & secrecy model) software, which is generally only developed by smaller numbers, hands tied by restrictive liscencing.

not just some single perspective of what is "objectively" the ambigious "better", but a rich diversity of choice, allowing not only a broad selection of many things that are likely to be closer to your tastes, but also the freedom to take it and make it closer to your tastes, and incorporate your own ideas, or ideas and code from others whove created things you like.

this community of sharing is, by comparison, drastically missing in windows users and mac users, and i presume same with all proprietary software. it's clear though, from how much windows users casually break the law and copy software which the licenses do not give permission to make such copies, that these people also have this dessire for comunity, sharing, and the freedom of ideas, information, like their software. ... so, how about hey just get on board with the freedomware?

fsf.org
gnu.org

kick it!

Friday 2 July 2010

freedomwhere

we could live on the northpole like gypsies if we had a community of amphibious caravans with water powered engines. i mean, flying&submarine ones too of course. some type of fabricating device, like the reprap, but more evolved, likely including a geet engine or the like, which can be tuned to produce different elements, as well as "print" out a complex construction (yes, a star treck replicator then, but in real existing technology terms). that way we could construct our own hydroponics equipment too, water purifiers, heaters, replacement replicators, replacement whatevers, new designs, anything we need... and the technology exists... now tell me my hippie anarcho-socialist dream is ecconomically unviable. :P

lets start cracking on with constructing those n getting them out to people eh?

;)

freedomware

this was gonna be a long rant, and full on rational walkthrough explanation of why "freedomware" rather than "free software", and certainly not just "opensource", which is just to get bidniz peeps on board, n we aught to forever remember the importance of our freedom.

...instead i'll keep it relatively short.

free software, sounds like freeware, in that it's available at no cost. and while that may be true, that's not the main point. the main point is that you are free to do with it what you please, so long as you let others continue to have the same freedom to do what they want with it.

freedomware, a term, as far as i am aware, i've come up with myself, seems to do the job much better.

free, sounds like price.

freedom, sounds like.... freedom!

Richard Stallman, in many of his many eloquent talks, mentions how the english language has a quirk that prevents us from conveying freedoms the same way some other languages can, like with libre/liberty... liberty software would have even been better. but it cracks me up to hear Richard say the english language inhibits us from conveying freedom in a word. ....

... how about... um....

freedom!

anyways, just an idea that seems painfully obvious to me every time i hear foss, opensource, freesoftware and the like.

Wednesday 12 May 2010

witch

yeah, witch has a .iso release now.   full live/installer.
got it installed on my main machine now.  :)


idk if i'll bother keeping updates on my blog about it.

| http://tinyurl.com/witchlinux | http://tinyurl.com/witchlinuxforum | http://invariability.net/witch | http://witch.jonys.info/wiki/ |

Thursday 29 April 2010

weight of a duck?

it's official. witch-alpha2 has been released early! yay! http://puffinux.freeforums.org/post33.html#p33 biiiiiig change from alpha1.

if you want more information beyond what's divulged in the puffinux forums page (the official home of witch), then take a look here, click the button: http://instantsfun.es/legendary

Thursday 22 April 2010

witches! BURN THEM!

...a conversation in #!'s irc, has got me sidetracked in the middle of my big install-fest.

WITCH!
Weight of a Duck, Burn 'em!

http://omploader.org/vNDhsNA/witch-alpha1.txt

http://omploader.org/vNDhscA/witch-alpha1.iso
(thnx for being so cool omploader)
http://data.jonys.info/witch/witch-alpha1.iso
(thnx for da mirror jony123)

for more info, check out the announcement at puffinux, my forum for all my distros, vapourware and the more solid ones.  ;D
http://puffinux.freeforums.org/witch-alpha1-released-t21.html

Wednesday 21 April 2010

LevinRhan gets fed up with masked packages

since i'm quite chatty these days, and this has come up in conversation a few times, rather than respond to the "what are u installing" questions fresh each time, i'm drawing out here, the rough plans as they are at this stage, for my big old drastic revamp of my whole system.  biggest change for years.

on the 300gig velociraptor which until now, has only ever had 3 partitions, i plan on having:

sda1 16gb Swap 
(yeah, i've heard not to go above 4... what do they know about my needs)

sda2 16gb Secondary System  
(where i'll b when it hits the fan)

sda3 ??mb  GRUBBY 
(a small distro, probably slitaz, with a saikee style grub chainloader)
(THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTITION)

sda4 ~~ extended
sda5 3gb #!Statler  vanilla
(or likely in the future, whatever is the most up to date crunchbang)

sda6 16gb #!Statler Squishy
("squishy" from hence forth, for purposes of this document, simply refers to my custom configuration as used in default squishboom)

sda7 16gb #!9.04 Squishy
(old faithful, at least it has been for my laptop for the past whiley)

sda8 3gb Archbang vanilla

(likely the latest archbang.  cos u know, i like to keep track of it's progress too.)

sda9 >5gb Archbang Squishy
(yep, my custom configuration built on archbang... unsure how big i should make it... more likely will be another 16gb, echoing the partitioning for the crunchbangs.)

sda10 5gb Debian - Squishy
(yep, its not statler, it might be squeezebang, but the idea is more to build a squishboom on debian from scratch.)

sda11 5gb Crux - Squishy
(CRUX!   that's right!  i've long wanted to give it a shot... so why not give it some space for the funs.)

sda12 1gb Slitaz - Squishy
(was about to limit it to 512mb only, but 1gb just seems a little more round and convenient)

sda13 5gb Slackware - Squishy
(LONG have i been a Slackware admirer, :)  so i imagine i'll be in full on tantric geekgasm over having a squishslack.)

sda14 3gb Slax - Squishy
(slax!?   SLAX!?   yeah... :)  its loadsa fun.  has great potential to be a dream distro, but as it is, it's more like rummaging around a junkyard trying to put a decent system together.  still... loadsa fun... and easy to make your own distro.)


sda15 ~ sabayon - squishy
(nope... purpose of this is an end to my time with gentoo based... unless i opt for paludis)

sda15 ??gb BSD
sda16 ??gb BSD
sda17 ??gb BSD
sda18 ??gb BSD
(4 BSDs!?  yeah.   most likely PC, FREE, DragonFly & Open)

sda19 ??gb ICAROS
(yeah, i might even stick an aros in there.)

sda20 ??gb AROSBOOM (squishy)
(and if i stick aros in... why not see if i can go mad and install various more familiar apps for the interface)

sda21 room for more distro surfing
sda22 room for more distro surfing
sda23 room for more distro surfing
sda24 room for more distro surfing
sda25 room for more distro surfing
...and more?

and then on sdb 1.5tb internal, besides some backup partitions, storage, there's already partitions prep'd for more.

besides all my various usb pendrives, i'll make sure at least one of them has a full on chainloader grub too, incase something happens to my sda3.   also, in sda3, i'll make sure there's information (updated periodically) with what is in all the partitions... y'know, in a seperate text file, so i dont go messing about too much in the grub config and risking borking it with a pebcak error.

pretty wild huh?



aaaand, if this idea has just come upon me in my fever while ill, i've still got my dd'd backup of my old major grande install of sabayon, and two other sequentially smaller sabayon installs backed up too, so i can always go back.  :)

i'm taking it slow and cautious still tho... i dont want to make any more silly mistakes while my thinking is still a bit groggy from this cold, or flu or whatever i've had.


there.   info overload.   :D  now i just need to link next time someone asks me what i'm up to.  :D

Tuesday 20 April 2010

o noez

"...there will still be idiots."


was the echo of the realization i just had... following the calleman/lungold interpretation of the mayan consciousness calendar... just as there is not the massive ubiquity unto absolute similarity absolutely, as in there are now, that which is not as "consciously evolved" relatively co-existing, so as the progression continues, will the wake accelerate past the boat?

the further back, are the waves bigger? or are they lost in the chaotic noise? or is the "chaotic noise" back there sufficiently self organising? sufficiently inteligent to transcend the entropy?

can the wake accelerate past the boat?

are we the water, or the boat?

Friday 16 April 2010

yacb

yacb, Yet Another Config Backup.

this time, in my fresh archbang install, i've installed firefox and all the addons i use in my crunchayon* opperating system's firefox.

the purpose of this is so that should i need to again, i can just (in theory) download and decompress this .mozilla folder to my home folder, and assuming the correct version of firefox is installed, it will run just as i like it, with all my addons.

for clarity of reference, here are the addons, as generated by  MR Tech Toolkit:

Generated: Fri Apr 16 2010 15:56:05 GMT+0000 (UTC)
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100402 Namoroka/3.6.3
Build ID: 20100402183726

Enabled Extensions: [14]

Installed Themes: [4]

Installed Plugins: (1)
  • Shockwave Flash

 and without further ado, here's the link to the uploaded config:
http://omploader.org/vNDY2Zw/digitsfresharch.mozilla.tar.lzma
or the short link:
http://omploader.org/vNDY2Zw
or if for some reason you wish to see omploader's info page about it:
http://omploader.org/iNDY2Zw


but i'm not stopping there.

as nice as the config files for conky, tint2 and openbox's menu.xml and rc.xml in vanilla archbang 2 rc2 are, i've grown too accustomed to my own configuration, especially the keyboard shortcuts... not really all that fussed about my menu.xml to be honest tho.  its not as useful once u get a nice logical and intuitive keyboard shortcut setup.  

just to illustrate some of the general guidelines in my keyboard shortcuts:

Ctrl, like the name suggests, is generally for "control", root control that is.  so for example, if u press Tux*** - f to launch file manager, Ctrl - Tux - f to do the same, but with root priveledges.

Alt, like the name suggests, is either used to "alternate" something, like perhaps a toggle, or it is used as an alternative where that particular key combination (without the alt) is already taken by something else, but no other suitable alternative key had been found.  one example of this in squishboom is the package manager and partition editor, both mapped to p.  as package management is likely the more commonly used, it gets Tux-p, while the likely less often used partition editor is assigned the Tux-Alt-p.

Tux, as the more sherlock holmes / quincey / ironside / dunnaway among you may have already guessed, is for things relating to the opperating system... or more accurately/commonly, the window manager.  like for starting applications, adjusting transparencies, switching desktops....

...well, sort of.  it's an imperfect system, as the underlying crunchbang original controls were pretty much all kept intact so to preserve useability and workflow for those switching from crunchbang to squishboom.   squishboom's interface can be described with reasonable accuracy as crunchbang plus.

ooookay, enough waffle, to the point, here are the links to my squishboom** configs:

http://omploader.org/vNDY3Yg/digitssquishboomopenboxconfigs.tar.lzma
be advised, it may not all work, for example, there will be shortcuts in the rc.xml which will refer to applications not installed, and the autostart script will attempt to launch files which arent available.  the menu.xml has been neglected quite a bit thnx to both my shortcuts, and the debian automenu included within it, which of course will not function in non debian/ubuntu based distros.

http://omploader.org/vNDY3aA/digitssquishboomtint2configs.tar.lzma
my tint2 config.  maximising screen space usage, taking a leaf out of the book of tiling window management.  :)

http://omploader.org/vNDY3aw/digitssquishboomconkys.tar.lzma
and the conkys.   as nice an idea as the keybinding conkyswitcher is, its not essential for me at the moment with my system of shortcuts i can fathom easily enough without the cheatsheet.

http://omploader.org/vNDY3ZQ/digitssquishboomtildaconfig.tar.lzma
i've also included my tilda config, because i always install it, and its becoming an all too familiar experience reconfiguring it in every distro i install.

okies, that'll do the job.

*crunchayon is the nickname i gave to a minimal sabayon 5.1 install, configured to be like as is in squishboom (or crunchbang if you like).

** squishboom originally being my crunchbang adaption inspired by crunchbang, and attempting to take that which i liked about crunchbang most, further.

*** Tux is name i give to what you may know of as the "Super" or "Windows" button/key.   mine has a little "Tux" the penguin picture on it.  :)

Thursday 15 April 2010

Don't be wrapped in plastic!

lemme set the scene for ya...

i installed archbang, but made a fail on my grub bootloader issues.

that's the scene.

and why did that scene take place in our stage production?

too long with what i, unashamedly insultingly call, noob distros.

it may seem more convenient that everything "just works", but one of the beauties of them not working, is that it forces your hand to learn something.

and that i intend as the central theme here.  learning something!



there are two pieces to the jigsaw of my experience-led mental make-up, that i'd love to hammer home to the world... 

these experiences came from:
1: an episode of star trek where a society is in danger of collapse because a computer that has taken care of their every whim for ages without malfunction starts to break down, and no one knows a thing about it.
2: the gnu.org/philosophy pages.

i summed it up in a near bumper sticker sized quote on a forum...

if your life depends on a computer, then know how it works!
(~edit~ and even if it doesnt too)

or at the very least, start learning!

dont be wrapped in plastic.  basically.

y'know... dont shut yourself off from the world around you.

your operating system is part of that world, and chances are, (especially if you are sad enthusiastic enough to be reading this blog), a really important one!

with proprietary, you're just not really given the chance.  trade secret, keep out, not allowed.

maybe back in the DOS days you felt a little closer to truth, but then along came macs, and that just completely denied the "end user" any chance of knowing what was really going on in their machine, and the DOS lineage pretty much followed in this way.

well it ain my way, no more.

back in the days of reading up on the gnu philosophy, i thought i understood it then... and i did, i was intelectually sold on the idea, and now i hope i KNOW it.

and dont think that just once you also "get it" and make the decision to leave your long familiar proprietary operating system, that your days in a bubble are over... there's still plastic sheeting over many open source distros.

yeah, sure, u can take it off.  you are actually free to look under the hood, and perhaps on occasion you may be asked to, or even required to peek under the plastic wrap which separates you from being one step closer to truth and reality, once in a while.

but if you dont want to fall the way of those who's existence was at risk, you'll have a motivation to your curiosity, you'll look under that plastic hood, you'll want the truth, not the plastic convenience facade.

wont you...?

yeah... convenience has real allure.

Richard stallman warned me.   he warned us all.

and if he had the "Public Relations" budget of the corporations, we all might have heard him over the corporate roar.

well i consider myself getting closer to living the ideals i've long held, now that i have arch installed.

my grub problem?

oh, i fixed that pretty quick... see, i was just a bit rusty after too many years of not needing to think, letting the magic under the plastic wrap do it all for me.

no more.

now the arch way,
is my way.

Monday 12 April 2010

digits personal notes on archbang (2, rc2, 64bit, live cd)

searchmonkey
very glad it's included, but i wonder if it could have it's default text editor, folder explorer and web browser already configured, out of the box.


conky & conkyswitcher
so very chuffed with the inclusion of the super+x to toggle the keyboard shortcut hints.
~this little tidbit, to my perception, is a great exemplar of what happens when you take a little of what makes crunchbang great, and a little of what makes arch great, and mate the two. :)


last time i booted into the live system:
after copying to ram, and installing a few little apps i like, (tilda & gimp), and taking a little look at the installer, amidst making some archbang graphics, with little prior warning, i could no longer make changes to the graphics i was working on, error messages popping up familiar to me when in my other system while running off.

this time, running install, i got a message from sed, how it couldnt read from xorg, just after the install packages segment.

everything else seemed to go well.  very impressed with the nuances of the installation method.   ... though it did all chew up a little more ram than i was expecting it would, still well within acceptible levels for this machine.

i dont miss the arch cursor from archbang2 rc1.  ;)  but it was a nice treat to be shown it.  seeing it first time around inspired me to make my own little cursor... a small mushroom, with a purple glow. ;)


i've got a similar sense of keen excitement about perhaps making archbang my metadistro, my base distro, from which i start to configure my system, as i got when first installing my first distro, or the first time i installed slackware, or when i first realised what a gift crunchbang was for me.  i expect archbang to probably double performance over an ubuntu based system, and further deepen my education in linux ways... specifically, the arch way.  :)

much thanks to the archbangers for providing this very welcome leg up to more conveniently enter the flow of the arch way.  

this is similar to my gratitude a few years back when i discovered sabayon, the convenient leg-up into gentoo, though perhaps the biggest difference here is, little and large.  sabayon, at least when i hooked up with it in version 3.4 FULL, had the closest of any distro i had encountered, to including everything including the kitchen sink.  archbang...  quite the opposite.  after my richly rewarding experiences with a distro like sabayon, where i like to sum it up as "the o'brien way" (born from one comment he made to a cardassian: "I wouldnt like to be caught without a third backup"), i got to know better my options, develop my preferences... so now i feel comfortable trying it on in a more cardassian way, where everything "should just work".  i know it wont, ;)  i know i'll encounter both pebcak errors, and issues i have to resolve myself from using a system that prides itself on being bleeding edge.   thats all part of the excitement, the exhileration of the voyage i am choosing.


ho ho ho...  and this started out so neat and concise.  oh well, glad i got lost in ramble there, just to make sure this post lives up to my intro blurb to this blog.   ;)

suffice to say... i expect mentions of archbang will make more appearances in digit's linux blog from now on.   not to mention, ...  use as base in my squishboom plans, of which i intend to convert my installation scripts to be archbang compatable as well as the crunchbang compatable version.  woohoo...   excuse me while i let this out uncensorred...  FUCK I LOVE LINUX!   lol.  freedomware ftw.

Saturday 27 March 2010

recent apps of admiration...

feh.

check it out.  its much more than just an image viewer, or whatever u know it as.

it's light, pretty, straight to the task, no fluff n nonsense, and u can do all kinds of clever integrations via the comand line.   (i been makin some interesting inclusions in my openbox menus for example, and also have a few plans for some other interesting bash scripts which would make use of feh in amusing ways.)


finch.

OMIGOSH!   is it pidgin?  no.  but it does use the libpurple or whatever that pidgin instant messenger uses.  so its as fully functional as big ol pidgin, but.....  u can use it from command line!  it's ncurses goodness!   sooo lightweight.


i found a link which allows one to incorporate skype into it (finch or pidgin) too... but have yet to get that to work properly (or at all... heh).

anyways, the cool thing is, finch is so awesome, i dont need either weechat nor irssi anymore.   finch does irc too remember... and imo, does it better!  easier to control n manage n fiddle with, in my experience and useage style.  just as lightweight, easier and does more?   what more do ya want?  hehe



i'm sure i must have mentioned this when i was doing my INX post ( i did do a blog post about INX right?), but it's worth mentioning again here.


plait!

plait is sooo cool.   or at least it was when it was neatly configured out of the box with INX.   INX has some unique weirdness of it's own besides the fact, so plait is not so familiar as it was in INX.   but still... the functionality is in there.  frikkin awesome feature that lets u just write in whatever genre or silly word you like, and it will find just that kind of thing being played on the net, and play it for u.  lovely.


 sox.
yeah, since im on a cl app binge at the mo... this audio recorder has me sold.  a couple niggles about it, but basically, it's frikkin awesome.  made a few recordings of me on the digeridoo with it already.



ok ok, lets get off the cl for a mo again....

exaile.

for a while i been looking for a new favourite music player. n i think this is it.
it has all the kinds of features u probably want from the likes of amarok or windows media player, but it does so with less fuss, less pointless processor hogging glits, and just gets on with what it's supposed to do with no further pointless embelishments.  so now i shud probably get a music collection again to make use of it,. hehe... i been on the internet radio for so long, my own collection has been forgotten and neglected.



alsamixer.
i know, its silly to get so excited about an app to control your volume... but this one runs in my terminal!  my last one chewed up way more resources than such a simple app should.

quick and dirty slapbang.

http://omploader.org/vM3lmOQ/slapbangv001.txt
http://www.slax.org

u can take the above txt file and reload it on slax.org's custom distro builder, and download it (or modify it to your needs and tastes and ability), as iso or tarball, ready for burning to cd, usb, unetbootining, or even making more modifications after downloaded too.

:)


dont you just love free software. ^_^

why slapbang?
it has a nicer ring than slaxbang. and slackbang of course would be using slackware itself as it's "meta distro".


yup.. u guessed it. its another crunchbang-alike. ^_^

i havnt done any extra configuring other than just attempting to include as much of the stuff familiar to crunchbang, navigating past kde dependencies as best i could.

slax is a really enjoyable distro to roll your own. very simple n easy... even if it is a bit dirty. ;)


PS, this version has both openbox and xfce in it.  :)

Wednesday 10 March 2010

no squish, but i spied my old friend dux.

yeah yeah, i still havnt officially released squishboom. :P :P
.*

side tracked with other stuff.

not least, archbang. :P if it would work on my system. well... it did.. but now it doesnt again. lol i remember those days, early with my 'nix honeymoon.
A!

also not least, crunchayon. i did almost the most basic install i could off the sabayon 5.1 games dvd. and started crunchbanging it. it's been mostly a pleasing experience. .... in the way ointment with flies is mostly pleasing.
#y

but while i was looking around for a usb stick i could use to test out archbang 2 on, via unetbootin, to see if live usb would work friendlier than native cd, i stumbled across, on my three 2gig drives:

1. wilburdavix ( the second linux distro i made for a friend. this one based on davix, the prior, on a stripped slax )

2. dux ( 5th incarnation of my own personal lightweight distro with just the main key features i seek.... except wifi fails! gur. )

3. squishboom 'nix ( a version i was gonna make, that has a pile of extra tweaks outside the purview of the effects from the pris enacted upon a crunchbang. ...but then i went n messed it up before turning it into a ISO, and put some personal data on it (ie, everyone would sign into my icq, msn and aim, and skype has my name there too ... if i hadnt done that, this version mighta been the one that made it to official release ).



the dux, i'm really quite happy with.
infact, just this very second as i type this, i think i should make a slaxboom. or at least a crax / crunchslax / slaxbang / slang ... whatever u wanna call a crunchbang-alike-slax. but the boom, meaning it'd b like squishboom. mmmm.

anyways, the dux is kinda... um... well, it just works so sweet. much thnx to slax, and kde and ... yeah. the rest. i'm just chuffed cos i had been having a pesky ntfs external play up, but here little dux is ready to go n play my playlist inside it. :D gosh i love it when things just work soooo much more effortlessly than u expect... and sad to say, i still think u get that experience most often, most easily, with kde3.5* still.

i love making the lightweight stuff.... but even kde can be reasonably lightweight.
but the really lightweight stuff i mean... like trying to make a pure cli distro that has dwm or musca just to save from the pain of twm for when u really need gui.



... actually, most of my time has been spent between doing some graphic design stuf for u-praise, & learning gentoo in vain hope i might be capable of producing a gentoo based crunchbang-like live-installer iso.

i would b a god if i pulled that off.

but then, if it were that easy, someone would have done it already... wouldnt they?

maybe i should stick to slax and slitaz and suse-studio and ubuntu remastersys dist.


anyways... just blowin of some steam.

wanted to make note of my "dux" distro somewhere. it's the one i been developing the longest... even longer than squishboom... cept i never planned to be releasing it so much as i have with squishboom.


would really rather if i had faster upload. then i would get dux v.005, wilburforce linux, wilburdavix, squishboom, puffinOS, GIMPstick pure, GIMPstick dirty, and the rest once made, all uploaded, so folks can get a grip on them, rather than get blasted with all my vapourware. ^_^

~ yeah... its true, i do actually do stuff for real. it's not all dreaming. lol.



ahhh... dux. wonderful. v happy to have my hd playing nice again. nice to know i can do this now anytime it does that again. rather than have to attatch it to a windows pc and restart it three times.

flattr