Digit's Linux Blog

dlb is dead. long live dgb.

2011-11-28T06:25:00.000-08:00

optimistically i announce, the intent to cease posting to digit's linux blog.

i'll now be posting to digitsgnublog.tk

bless yas.

all the best.

c me there.

:)

sidness

2011-10-15T22:57:00.001-07:00

i just re-read http://digitslinuxblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/so-browsers-n-stuff.html and realised, when i mentioned i was on squeeze, that i hadnt told my blog what i did after that... i upped my crunchbang to debian sid. the bleedin edge debian. :)

it's actually rather nice. quite quite useable. ok, so i wouldnt recommend it to complete newbies, but it's totally useable, and not yet throwing any nasty bumps at me, so doesnt seem to warrant, at all, the scaremongering i've witnessed it receive in the 7 years i've been using linux. "oh no, dont use sid unless you really know what you're doing".... well i dont "really know what i'm doing", and i managed gentoo, slackware and arch ok, so i think sid shouldn't pose any problems i can't handle either. :P

also... it's not quite as bleeding edge as arch, or even gentoo for that matter. heck, by comparison it's downright ancient! from all the hype, i really expected more problems, and newer software. this feels barely a scratch above squeeze! (and remember, squeeze is now their stable branch, not their testing branch).

anyways, having said that, and being someone who's gotten spoiled with gentoo, arch and slackware, sid is definitely preferable to leaving my crunchbang lagging behind the times with a stable branch. ....'he says for now, before there's been any trouble'.

idk, maybe the hyped warning was more viable back in the day, and all the stuff synaptic seems to have been doing to protect me from installing broken packages, is a more recent addition. whether new or old, it's probably the biggest factor in making sure my sid box remains useable.

...anyways, that's enough waffling to my blog.... i got stuff to do. :)

mypaint n other musings

2011-10-15T05:19:00.001-07:00

just been playing around with mypaint.

oh my!

tis very lush indeed.

right from the off, i am quite taken with this piece of software, and shall be installing it on all my operating systems asap.

i'm a wacom fanboy. i have my wacom intuous1 a4 usb tablet for the big workstation, and my lenovo x60t is also wacom "penabled".

mypaint makes the gimp look rather "industrial". stoic, sterile and starchy, even.

mypaint has now even got me considering reviving "the worker", a comic strip series i started back in 4th year of highschool, during "graphic communication" short course class.

it's such a joy drawing with this.

somewhat like "painter" that those of you from the proprietary software world will be familiar with.

given my recent increase in development interaction [started writing bug reports and feature requests for sunflower file manager and others], methink's i'll be getting to grips with this and seeing if i can lend a hand or drop some suggestions.

oh how i love free software.

the longer one is away from proprietary software, and the more one spends time with freedomware/"free software"/"open source software", the more one blends and becomes one with the software.

like just recently i saw a thread about visualisations in vlc (seems to be one of the areas of fluff it lags behind other media players), and how a guy from slackware had got them working... hehe, those slack guys live so much closer to the metal, if anyone was gonna sus it, it'd be a slacker. praise bob! XD

suffice to say, i'm living the dream more and more.

bring on the free energy, so we can make our way towards the negligeable-reproduction-cost for hardware, so the free software movement really will need to change their name to the freedomware movement, to include the free hardware movement too. :) viva liberty!

...

oh, but back to sunflower... mmm, i do love it when you find something that not only do you love massively, but also find so much room for improvement!

sunflower has got me thinking of ditching pcmanfm, my long time fave file manager. only thinking though. not likely to put any action towards that for a while. there are still a few niggles with sunflower. but certain enough i've rearranged a few keybinds in my openbox* configuration to accomodate it.

*yes! shocker! i'm back in openbox, not xmonad or scrotwm just now. ... partly/only because i'm on a fresh crunchbang install. i had realised i didnt have a proper working useable os on my laptop anymore, having been tinkering around making lightweight slack, slitaz and arch distros in numerous partitions. it was a distro-development minefeild... not a properly working and usable [for the every day joe] laptop anymore. ... so i've been installing a number of games too... and wine apps.... like musagi!

yes, indeedy, creativity and creativity's productivity, are returning. the development insanity is retreating. ... well... i'm still working on the EPIC install/remaster script for witch... got it up to being ready for some first test runs, just for the gentoo installation section. there's still millions to do for it. debug and clean up the gentoo install section, write the install sections for funtoo, exherbo, etc etc etc, and debug them, re-write as smaller functions so it becomes more modularised and interchangeable between distro bases, and of course, last but not least, the remastery bit which rather than a hack of slitaz's tazlito, looks more likely now i'll hack out a script version of: http://blahonga2.yanson.org/howtos/livecd/ (phew, i thought i'd have to use metro if i wanted a more gentoo-esq native way... good ol slackers to the rescue again)

nnnnnoice.

oh, and one last bit about the creativity...
i've been making a few more audio tracks recently (not just with musagi)... i might get that next album out soon after all...
heh, there, i've done it now, we'll see if that saps the projects energy, or lights a fire under my ass to get it done. SURELY i have enough tracks by now to pick from for "pHϕmorphia". ...oh man, i havn't even thought what the cover will look like yet...

ah the joys of productivity. i better not work too hard, and have a repeat of winter 2008/09, where i worked so focused and like a workaholic, i neglected my vitaminD levels, fell into a deep ass nasty S.A.D. that triggered the worst anxiety episodes of my life (yeah, even worse than when i was getting subtle death threats n being told i was getting too close and too loud... but that's a story for my biography, not my blog, lol.)

rather looking forward to the future again. they say those with aquarius sunsigns always think 50 years ahead, and yep, that's pretty close to the truth of it, though as laudible and high minded as that might sound, living it, can be incredibly painful at times. i think it's more like we're from the future, and get born into the past. ... so i get incredibly impatient waiting for stuff to come to fruition, like how i remember/expect them to be, and sometimes, it gets fucking terrifying that it might not pan out like that, as we experience the [alegedly] necessary brinkmanship that causes us to realise where we're going, and steer a new collective path.

what caused this turn around in perception? maybe it was the year of supplementing with 5000iu of cholecalciferol (vitD3) a day to bring my levels back up. maybe it was just that cumulation of experiences on the course that tipped the balance. or maybe it was that moment when i looked around and counted how many wind turbines i could see from my house, and i remembered how far we'd come in my lifetime, and consciously eased my impatience with that aquarian future-born expectation, and just took it as a sign that we are heading in the right direction after all. we are heading to satya yuga.

...and it's hands on.

:)

so... browsers n stuff...

2011-09-30T13:31:00.001-07:00

chrome's not my cuppa (philosophically/ideologically/ethically or pragmatically), idkwtf is up with firefox4+++++, and none of the others are quite doing it for me. ...so uzbl is still my main cuppa. it's not quite so convenient for getting the plugins you want on the go, but makes up for that with configurability, and putting so much more power in your hands, with it's integration with linux, via it's adherence to the unix philosophy.

having said that, i concede, i have been spending a lot of time with seamonkey/iceape recently, after months of almost nothing but uzbl.

mainly, at least to begin with, it was for it's excellent get-the-job-done wysiwyg html editor.

but i snuck in some use of it's browser, and then realised if i was going to do that, i should get iceape kitted out for browsing, with obvious important stuff like betterprivacy, ghostery, noscript, flashblock, etc. and then of course adding stuff i feel like i cant do without (compact menu, littlemonkey, video downloadhelper, etc)...

so yeah, here i come championing and bigging-up (big-up-ing?) uzbl, and i'm not even using it right now. i'm typing this into the blogger web interface, using iceape. :O

but wait, there's a reason for that...

i'm on a fresh install of crunchbang!

... "but crunchbang doesnt come with iceape!" i hear you cry. indeed... so why didnt i install uzbl instead of iceape?

debian repositories. *sigh*. it feels like the dark ages. now before anyone starts a forest fire from the sparks flying from the speed of their kneejerks, please take into account, that i have come from a prolongued intensive use of arch, gentoo and slackware. and not only that, but i've been using rather more leet management of my packages, picking and choosing which packages i use from stable, which are testing, and which are bleeding edge, since gentoo's portage is ace for letting you do that sort of thing. uzbl is one i set for "**9999" (the bleeding edge).

ok, i know, it's "debian squeeze" and squeeze is now their stable, right? ...buuuuut the uzbl they have is from april 2010. for something that's still calling itself alpha, and under reasonably heavy development, that is dinosaur stuff. i doubt any of the plugins will have much of a chance working with that old hat.

so indeed, since, conversely, slightly older iceape/seamonkey is actually better (in terms of plugins working with it, compared to bleeding edge seamonkey where plugins havnt caught up, as arch users will likely be familiar with), i installed iceape first... to nav around the net, sorting things out n whatnot, rather than chrome. ... and was about to install uzbl just then, when an idea struck me... since i do this a fair amount... wanting uzbl with me as i do... and requiring to install it in such case, that i should create a script for it. and so that's what i did.

i made ddumb,
(and have gone for "release-early" for once)
http://wastedartist.com/scripts/ddumb.html
... and that's why i'm writing this from iceape, and not uzbl.
not even tried it yet. just excitedly threw it up on the net. ^_^

let the noobs de-noob / the sharn o git

2011-09-05T02:31:00.000-07:00

the sharn of git:

git's hard to learn, if you dont use it alot to begin with.
(typing half a dozen commands one day, that you had to look up, and never again until ages later, doesnt do much to help learn em)

learning [code] happens much faster, when you collaborate on projects, and everyone fills the knowledge gaps of everyone else.

collaborating is much easier with git, and without git, it's almost impossible to collaborate propperly, since it's the daddy of collaboration aids.

... anyone see a problem with this loop of soft exclussivity?

pre-noobs not allowed in the party that de-noobs them, because they're pre-noobs/noobs.

logic fail in the grand plan. ... oh that's right, it wasnt planned, it evolved. ...well, we better fix that then. :)

stuff i love n other stuff.

2011-08-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

been using blender again. i forgot how much i love it. ok, so i'm not fluent n free flowing with it, able to get it to do what i want without looking up manuals, tutorials and so on like i could with softimage|XSI (especially since 2.5 changed it so much), but the potential is there.

uzbl is still as much a treat as ever. ... though there are "addons" that would make it all the sweeter, such as a script manager... for easier portability of whole configurations, not just the config file, which, unless u have no additional scripts, is not entirely convenient on it's own. "uzballs" are planned, but no work done on them yet i hear. good to know it's at least been thought of and is in the pipeline.

xmonad.... xmonad xmonad xmonad. oh how i love xmonad.

scrotwm too... i'm using it more these days, and even find it the superior to xmonad in a couple of ways... though sorely lacking in a couple others.

oops, almost forgot... tilda. ^_^ it's so standard to me now i dont even notice it.

i suppose i should also at least mention, gentoo. i mean gentoo for "real men". i'm no longer on toorox, (nor sabayon nor papug or whatever). a proper stage3 gentoo install from the ground up. :) and oh boy do i love it. got a make.conf sorted nice n minimal, and am keeping my system nice n lean. a speed machine! :)

here's the biggie... the new guy to the list. if you know me, or have been through this blog a few times, you'll likely have witnessed my apraisals of the previous apps (and distro), this one, i just discovered a couple days ago (thnx cog).

gmusicbrowser.

gmusic browser utterly trounces all other music players for linux (and for any other system for that matter). ok, sure, it's still kinda young, n has a rare ocassional scabby edge, but you can see it's already kicking bottoms. the customiseability of the interface layouts, the choice of backends, ratings, web features, scalable (designed with >10,000 tracks in mind), fast, clean, light... they done good, boys. they done good. one to watch.

i tried google+ for less than a day. that was enough to know "NO!". what epic chain fail. yes, i had to coin a new phrase to depict it. chain fail. ok, so lets say you can overlook the privacy/security/bigbrother concerns about letting google in that far into your social life and to know all that more about you than they already do from your searchings, and that you can even overlook that they report it all to govs (as they've now admitted), the chain fail kicks in hardest if you're not on one of the 4 big name browsers, explorer, firefox, opera and safari (iirc), in which case, they wont even let you in. ok, so no worries, just change what useragent your browser is broadcasting, right? nope. you can get into it then, but stuff wont work right. i dont like a site that tells me which browser i'm supposed to use. even if it told me i had to use uzbl, i would still not be pleased. to highlight the stupidity of this... i can surf facebook, with a text browser, and still have acceptible levels of functionality. .... ok, i can rant on about this for a while. suffice to say, google plus is actually google minus.

... and i'm not happy with facebook either. bring on diaspora or anon+.

"anon+.. what is anon+?"
:) a bright future for the net. huzzah! bring it on.

... and if they dont....
........me and some of the boys have been talking about how we could create better (than facebook).

uzbl gtk themes

2011-06-24T19:31:00.000-07:00

smplgut-uzbl

^^^ link to my uzbl inspired gtk theme set i made.

originally just 4. now expanded to ten uzbl-esq gtk themes to pick n choose from.

mostly dark, a few middle-ish, and a light one too.

likely makes little difference to most uzbl setups, but makes the rest of your apps look nice.

you dont need to use, nor even know what uzbl is, to make use of these themes. :)

thnx to those of you who use flattr.

uzbl, the return - day 7

2011-05-19T21:28:00.001-07:00

uzbl, the return, day7

so... uzbl has been doing strange things to me. all that "unixy-goodness" has started to go to my head...

... such that i installed slackware.

and slackware has been doing more of the same strange things to me....

... i now like delving deeper, getting to know more about my software. i'm not claiming i sit there reading throguh source code or anything like that... but just more about how the packages interact with each other, a few configuration files that are universal to all distros, i've never known much about, are now familiar to me, i now take a look at the project page for specific applications i want to use, i read about them more, i read README files, and so on.

and y'know what coems with all this extra engagement with my software? knowledge. it's got me off learning about stuff i hadnt been aware of existing. like yeahconsole!!!!!

yeahconsole is another piece of software that's really got me excited.

after tilda was segfaulting, i went first in search of fixes for it, but upon doing so, i discovered a link in one of the threads, pointing to yeahconsole. yeahconsole, isnt a drop down terminal.. it just adds drop-down functionality to your existing terminal of choice. how cool is that!!!

i've long wanted to explore all the rxvt terms n the like, but i've been so gleefully ingraned in the *uake/tild* paradigm that i couldnt bring myself to it.

a friend, rstcogburn/p0rksh3d suggested i check out his urxvt drop-down wrapper script once it was finished... well... thnx for the idea. ^_^ looks like i might have found a working one on my own already. i've not even typed a command into it yet, just configured it, launched it, and made it appear/disapear a few times, and i already love it. it seems properly crisp n clean. fluffless. i like that. ^_^

...and why am i rabbiting on about this in my uzbl series?

well... besides the point of it being MY blog, AND my disclaimer just under the title, because this is what uzbl has done to me. it's set forth a cascade of events (pebcak n all), that's bringing me closer to the metal, deeper into the interoperability of the operating system... the immense power that comes from your software being entirely "sh" friendly, so one app can use the output of another and do things with it... so all apps can work together, rather than distinct separate islands that you're just reliant on whatever features the programmer thinks you need.... which when you're in that prison, it often feels really great, because the programmer has diligently furnished it with everything they could think of you needing. and that's great, it really is, it works wonders, especially for many a specialist application (thinking of the highest couple examples of this like softimage|XSI and abletonLIVE)... and chances are, when the demands are high-end enough, you'll come full circle, and that pipeable interoperability will be on the cards again.

see... i know uzbl isnt the absolute zippiest nippy responsive browser out there... using the likes of "links" (as i'm doing on slackware just now, until i get uzbl installed..... i'll get around to it, dont worry) where everything seems instant, because there's no delay waiting for graphics to load, no wasted cpu cycles on anything but the text n links... yeah, it's fast... but uzbl wins, despite it's python lag, because of it's interoperability with the rest of the os, because of it's relative familiarity. if you've already learned a load of bash, there'l be more tricks availed to you in uzbl. if you havnt, and you learn to use and configure uzbl, you'll learn more tricks to apply to the rest of your os. ...see how clever it is?

... i still feel like i've completely failed to convey the boon of using software that strives to adhere to the unix-philosophy of "one job, well". when you couple this with "Free Software" (i.e. the 4 freedoms) it really takes off. without the freedom, it becomes insular, elitist, esoteric. with the freedom, it becomes a community, where we're all sharing and learning together. ...sure you still get elitism in some corners, but hey, that's kinda part of the freedom... it's "free to share", not "not free to not share" (or not "mandated to share", if that's clearer.)... as was proven just moments ago in irc.. there are of course still people who are in that place where they'd rather massage their own insecurities by calling others "noobs" rather than actually offer something helpful. human failings on their spiritual evolution aside, the 4 freedoms are still maintained, and that fosters the sense of community, encourages the notion that it's not only ok to share, but a very welcome benefit to US ALL. .... n that's the idea that proponents of the proprietary development model are fighting hard against. there, it's aledgedly not being a beneficial contributing member of society, but a leeching pariah criminal!!! see how utterly disturbingly wack that is?!? helping your neighbour is a crime??? helping spread enlightenment and knowledge is a crime? helping spread empowerment a crime??? utter maaaaadness!

centralisation, totalitarianism, want to keep you dependent. hard working dependents. slaves effectively. constantly reinforcing the idea in you that you cant know enough to be empowered, and that you always need to keep relying on what they have to offer you, and that what they offer you is the farthest extent of possible empowerment, so you'd better keep working to pay the piper.

... ok... ok... now i rly have stretched the relevence to uzbl a bit far... this is encroaching on the teritory of digit's ideals vs the incumbent socio-ecconomic paradigm. :/

... i suppose i'm just having a grumble about this because i have some wage slavery to get on with... or the nearest thing i have to it, freelance graphic design crap for commercial interests. :/

better stop procrastinating on that with my lamentations. ^_^

uzbl, the return - day 6

2011-05-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

uzbl, the return, day6

well, yesterday i said i was gonna start from scratch...

i thought i'd rap out an arch install in about 25 minutes, n then another 20 minutes later, i'd have a nice gui (xmonad + my config), packer, pacsync and of course, uzbl installed again, and start up a nice tight install, kept tight n tidy with pacsync...

...alas, events took a different turn.

my dual netinst cd was giving me installation problems again... i'd had this before installing arch on this laptop for bases for the arch based rown witch linux i've been developing.

it seems to somehow cut out just after package installation, and fails to reccognise the media it was being installed to after that (preventing just those last two steps).

so after the third time getting the same result (and not remembering what i did, besides blind luck, to get it to work for the arch witch install), i thought i'd just try the shortcut cheat way of getting arch installed.... archbang. ... installed it, but it failed to boot... and.. well... i could have probably tried a couple things, but i had already decided, somwhere between my second attempt getting the drives to stay awake during the arch install, and the archbang install, that i'd install slackware.

slackware 13.37

how can you resist?

^_^

since i have a 15gb partition newly freed up, n i've long been saying how much i respect slackware n will eventually use it n so on...

so... i thought, since i'm already on this uzbl unixy-goodness fest, why not get closer to the metal with the most leet sounding release of slackware ever.

it makes sense, right?

....or maybe i'm having too much of a good thing here.

configurability n unixy-goodness is good stuff.... but... maybe going for the lightest gui otion availed in the installer was going a bit far. just giving me twm. just giving me basically everything to isntall... in this new* unfamiliar os that takes a little more reading up on how to install software (and more typing) than most of everything else i've used. so much so, i ran back to my ubuntu-based squishboom install on the laptop just after installing libevent and tmux from slackbuilds.org.

* not the first time i've installed slack over the years... but the last time was so long ago, and i dont rly remember much of it, n probably didnt use it for long enough to get a proper feel for it.

it is a far cry from the simplicity of "emerge --sync && emerge tmux" or "pacman Syyu && pacman -S tmux".

and to think i used to lament on how many extra characters/options pacman and apt based distros had you typing/remembering over gentoo's simple "emerge"....

...but anyways, like i say...

it's nice feeling closer to the metal.

and it's good to learn.

learning how to live closer to the metal, means... well... basically it means you're more immediately availed the benefits of free software, the proper way.

i mean, the "open source" guys did think about the term, seemingly, longer and harder than i presume the deliberations went over the term "free software", despite, for the most part meaning pretty much the same thing.

it's about the source. the availability n freedom to get jiggy wid da source!

so the less layers of abstraction and interpolation and plastic wrap between you and the source, the better... right?

well, yes and no.

(or should that be yes and know).

convenience, oh convencience... why must you so often come ready as convenience for those who want to remain ignorant, and why must you be so inconvenient for those who want to know.

it's like the trade-off one has to make for security.
... sure you could have a completely secure locked down system, with no wires leading to the internet, and passwords required for EVERY action... but it's far from convenient.

same goes for being closer to the source. you're more closely afforded the opportunity to paruse the source code, to modify it and so on... but of course, it's not as simple as point and click gui package managers. ... n that's less convenient... if all you want is a click-n-go.

i'm not actually opposed to the idea of a click-n-go system... i just think it can be made in a way that retains that maximal expedient convenience, but ALSO provides the user, up-front, all the knowledge and source-code access that a close-to-the-metal style of package management affords.

nice ideals huh. ^_^

though i know why they've not been programmed to be so... a combination of lazyness and a perspective which says "those who want click-n-go dont want to know".... and there's an element of truth to that indeed. they dont. but is that any reason to help them remain ignorant? is that any reason to be negligent in caring for the intelectual commons? they are free software users just like everyone else... and as such, just as much developers as anyone else. who want's their software developers to be ignorant of how the software works??
....see... it's like an insideous poisonous meme, that's crept into free software from the proprietary cathedralesq model. and understandably so... in the evolutionary meme theory, you can easily see why it managed to out-compete the existing predominant meme in free software at the time of it's sneeking over... that being that hard-ass "geek it up or die" kind of elitist mentality. ...sure, it keeps your intelectual genepool rich... but small. it's off-putting to us lazy masses. n i dont say that disparagingly. lazy in the good sence. efficiency. we evolved to be this lazy. it makes sense. less effort for more gain? no-brainer. so of course plastic wrap started winning out... and just kept getting stronger as more n more arrived, self-exiled from proprietary, "windows refugees" we call them. and of course, they just kept adding to the demand (and supply) of more of this separation-from-code modality.

so yeah... that's me just re-itterating my call for all plastic-wrap to come with details on the contents.

then with a "fully informed public", we can start making smarter decisions. it's as true of software as it is for politics n grocery shopping n religion, and so on.

anyways... yeah... uzbl.

lol.

getting more used to it. though i admit, i have reached for seamonkey a couple of times.

pidgin on my ubuntu 10.04 squishboom, doesnt seem to want to retain that it's uzbl-browser i want it to use. keeps telling me that manual selected browser is not set. :/ maybe i'm doing something wrong.

i havnt done much more tweaking to it on any of my opperating systems since my epic facepalm fail.
(not sure if i mentioned this already, but shortly after my stupid mistake, i was informed that a mere cookie purge would have likely resolved my connection fail to a number of sites.)

i've just been using it. nice n simple.

on a page per page basis, it does seem to amount to a heavier ram useage, compared with my old fully kitted out firefox with bartab, n all the blockers (noscript, flashblock, adblock, ghostery, betterprivacy), and i really dont mind at all.

usually i'm a stickler for demanding things be ever less resource hungry (fighting against the tide, right?) but considering the interoperability with the rest of the system, it's soooooo worth it.

i am starting to see how despite it's slight flaws *coughpythonisslowcough*, it does, and will, confer productivity boons.

... and i'm forced to remind myself here... this is still alphaware!

it's just gonna get better. rly glad i've gotten on board so reasonably early in it's life.

i see a very long bright future for the likes of uzbl.

oh, and a bonux
(^typo worth keeping)

the moral of the story from the earlier bork...
(as repeated in the following todo)
dont go brash n insane next time something doesnt work, and instead, follow the apropriate troubleshooting proceedures.

X|

#####
todo
####

1. stop writing these silly todo lists at the end of your uzbl blogs, now that you've become fluent enough at editing the configs.
2. remember not to go brash n insane next time something doesnt work, and instead, follow the apropriate troubleshooting proceedures.
3. get a nice tiling wm and uzbl and 9menu installed on slackware. (doing that now as i write this blog ~ or procrastinating on that, and got this graphic-design brief to fullfil now too)

uzbl, the return - day5

2011-05-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

uzbl, the return, day5

well, after my reporting fail yesterday, i've done a faaaar bigger fail today.

the story goes something like this...

i was having loads of fun playing around with change_style.sh and various .css files i'd made/copied. i liked the idea of making every webpage use the style i chose for my webpage.

it was working great.

then dipiwee in ##customize made a second request for screenshots of my customisations, and i thought, "ok".

"ok" as it turns out, lead to a whole load of disruption....

so... i go to ompload with my newly created batch of screenshots, but :O oh no! omploader wont load!

most obvious reason of course being... it doesnt like something i've done in my tweakings... so i try to roll back a few of the changes... still no omp. so i fiddle with my style changes, n the script n my config a few more times, all with the same result, no ompldr.org.

now i've fallen way down the labrynth of changes... and still no omp...

so i try imgur, to see if it can handle change_style.sh...

yup... so i get my images uploaded.

...wait... now what... seems facebook and several other pages are now refusing to load! oh noes!

what have i done. ... and then i discover the reason i couldnt visit omplr.org, was because it was down!

DOH! so all those haphazzard wild tweakings n changes i made.... i was fixing something that wasnt broken!!!

so.. i try to fix my borked fix for a while.... still, no matter what i did, i couldnt get facebook (and a few other pages) to play nice anymore.

always telling me it timed out, n couldnt connect, offering me an utterly futile "try again" button.

i could change the styles all i wanted... n get that message in default, or any number of my tweaked styles... and i couldnt find where it was that i'd changed something so far as to make it not load facebook. i could switch off all the scripts, revert to the original default config... and still get that message.

so... i decided to uninstall, and reinstall uzbl-git...

nope... same message!

so i decided to uninstall and reinstall a different version uzbl-dfb-git ~ nope, that version didnt play nice.

so i decided to install another version... the experimental git branch.

oh lordy, that doesnt work nice at all... broken keybinds n other freakyness.

so, i go back to uzbl-git and as i had started to suspect... same message....

so... i get brutal n serious with it....

i backup all my configs n scripts, and then i sudo updatedb && locate uzbl, and from that list, i extracted everything but my backups of the configs i'd made, and add them ALL to a sudo rm -rf.

... i knew it wa wrong, i did it anyway.

i was desperate. i rly wanted whatever it was that was causing this fail on facebook gone.

alas... it took my whole home directory with it! and a few system directories too!

time to update my entry in the "whats the stupidest mistake you've made" thread.

classic moment of "i know this will likely break things, i'll do it anyway"... i must be missing some neuropathways from my frontal lobe.

so...

instead of fixing this tiny little problem, that wasnt a problem at all... i've ended up with a hosed system.

moment i reboot, i doubt i'll manage to boot into this system again.

:/

i could try restoring an old backup from short ago... but since my home dir was mostly just symlinks now, i'm not rly losing anything more by opting for a complete reinstall of arch... 'cept maybe a day of my life.

still... all's well on my toorox workstation. *sigh*

oh well, at least i got a couple screnshots outta it.
http://imgur.com/a/kT6hY

:/

#-|

y'knoa, i've always heard it said you have to be careful in linux, and that you can very easily completely destroy your system... and in the 7 years i've been using linux, i'd never actually experienced it until now. ...unless you count that time i intentionally put to test, the claims that "ubuntu doesnt let you do that".

well, this pebkac error will only make me stronger. :)

#####
todo
####

1. start from scratch

uzbl, the return, part4~ no, er 3.5

2011-05-14T03:31:00.000-07:00

uzbl, the return, part4~ no, er 3.5

(ok, technically i started writing this on what i'd call day three... but lets not quibble over that.) [edit- (it's later than late for me)]

starting to notice that what i most want is the ability to add ads to the adblock list, on the fly, "click click done*". ...not gonna sort that out now... i'm sleep deprived like a mofo.

*gone from my sight forever, effortlessly.

... hehe, or perhaps a do-gooder script for uzbl would b rly nice.

ads n pop-ups on megavideo for example... gurrr.

a moment of clarity...

double fudge.

fumbling around, feeling like forgetting everything i was doing, so able to work with... get this... zero to about a dozen tabs. ... that's it. uzbl isn't the lightest cat around. she doesnt scale as well as firefox with bartab (and noscript, flashblock, adblock, ghostery...)... but then... i dont recall me ever managing to make do with just about a dozen or less tabs with firefox. hence why i eventually ended up getting bartab addon, to help me scale my tab useage even more. i'm not joking here... after some time with bartab addon, (and this is neither joke nor exaduration here...) it was the norm for me to have over 1000 tabs in my session)

the fudge of it... it had created for me the illusion that i was getting more done, because i was looking at more ~ er, no, sorry, that was the illusion trying to slip back in there again. ~ because i was opening more.

this isnt just me, this isnt just firefox. this is loads of people, all over, suffering from "tabs as bookmarks". it's been happening since back in the days when all we knew about was explorer and something you heard of called "netscape" but never had the slightest incling to look out side your cosy little microsoft mesh, because [as incorrectly lead to believe] "thats all there is" and/or "it's the best".

~ er, sorry, getting off the point.

suffering from tabs as bookmarks. why? because the browser is a big slow bloaty thing to launch... it's so precious with all those tabs/windows so fragile and liable to crash, so full of that important data that you're using your important time to see, and you just really really dont want to have to click all those buttons again after having to wait for it to load again after it crashed, and you lost your big precious pile of stuff.

see, it teaches you that what you have is more important than either what you can do, or what whatever it is that you have can do / what you can do with it.

capability > stuff

^ thats the correction for you. :)

that's the re-orientation!

greater-potential-ward.

^ that's the heading/direction.

...

y'know... come at it with a philosophy of what's best... n keep looking for the best best you can find, the biggest, the broadest, the smartest, the ~

sorry, wrong blog. ;)

tonight it's free software rambling, with digit.

oh, wait, but that's right, free software is at it's roots savvy to philosophy first, it's a philosophy of synergy, and reccognises you only get there with the liberty, the freedom, the libero, only get the synergy that propells us all to be better than we can be alone, that we're all scuppered and diminished a little bit any time someone takes without giving, that doesnt synergise, and not only that, attempts to stop all others from synergising too.

if you're reading this and you've been on foods laced with any glutamates, or drinks laced with aspartame, then you might fail to catch a thought of that size there.

(if you're reeeeeal savvy n on the case, you'll have seen what i did there. ;) dimensional.) *snortyscoff*

stopping the synergising? dont they see that no matter how much they take n try to build their totalitarian singularity, they'll always ultimately falter too? yay, they might be the last to survive, but they'll still fall to ultimate bottom obliteration and ultimate nothingness oblivion. syngergising... as yaz would say... the only way is up.

and i'll add... "P.S., you're not a dot."

~

er... so anyways... uzbl.

it.. uhh.. helps you connect the dots.

i wonder what would be involved in making a button row for it... a fully configurable.. ;) y'know... for the firefox kids. ;) get them in on the candy(1), n hit them with the er... candy(2).

(1) the pretty button candy
(2) the unixy goodness, the interoperability n completely wide open potential for configuring n tweaking and making your own, making wow, making new innovations...

i wonder what'd be the lightest, simplest to configure way of getting that tight n tidy pixel perfect "gui"... i know uzbl already uses gtk... but since uzbl seems so accomodating... i wonder if we could see about using something lighter n simpler... hrmmm, fltk? no... no.. something simpler and more reliable... hrmm... i wonder what those haskell toolkits are like...

no, stop, that's just my haskell lust talking.

i think i'm past where i should have stopped this blog post now anyways. :P

uzbl, the return - day3

2011-05-14T01:41:00.000-07:00

uzbl, the return, part3

well, that was odd... i swore i remember posting part one... oh well, starting day 3, and days 1 & 2 are posted now.

i've a graphic design brief about to kick off any day soon (just waiting to be sent a file), and may need a browser to help with that, so this will be it's first real test. eep!

much better rested than i was yesterday (which was mostly squandered on facebook, ugh) so am keen to check out what pogress i made on adblock in those last few hours yesterday through my yawning and bleary eyes.
... or to find out what a mess i've made of my config.

oh, a little list of niggles seems to be the order of this series of blog posts. ^_^
i'm still not fluently making use of it. little things like copying the url of the page i'm on for instance... so used to triple clicking the url bar and ctrlC, ctrlV, or just middle clicking to paste... i'm sure in the uzbl way of doing things, there's a much simpler "press this one key once" and it's in the clipboard. ... yet to get that.

i did spend a chunk of time yesterday just reading through the config.
it was rather dry reading, as you'd expect, and it was late... attention kept wavering... eyes kept closing. ^_^
but i did manage to have a few "a-ha!" moments where i saw where it all fits, how it works, and why it's done like it is.

that's the thing about this level of unixyness... it's not made for immediate intuitiveness for someone who's never used it before... it's made to be the best way it can be for those who know it.
to some that might seem like an insane aproach, but really, it's about ... it's...
... it's like playing diablo2x, and you design your character before even playing with it, with your godly equipment in mind, so you fill all your skill points and attribute points accordingly with that end goal in mind, even though that is likely to cause considerable difficulties and shortcomings on the way. ...but once you get to your destination of having all your godly equipment specially selected for your fully optimised character build, you really apreciate it, and would really regret it if you had compromised. ...yeah, it's like that. ^_^

some of those niggles i have in converting to the interface, get utterly blown away when i learn how it's done in uzbl-browser with the default config. for example.. i was a little miffed earlier that i couldnt zoom with ctrl- and ctrl=, but what elation when i learned i can forgoe the ctrl key, with just a more intuitive - and +... more intuitive, that is, if i hadnt already been conditioned to this other way.

still niggled a bit that my blog would only increase the text size, and not the width of the text area... maybe this is already accomodated for too, and i just havnt encountered it yet, or maybe blogger is lame, and i should see if i can edit it's css.

discovering zoom "1" and "2" was a real treat too. just what the dr ordered. one zoom setting for when i'm leaning forward in productivity mode, one zoom setting for when i'm leaning back in lazy-browse mode. ^_^ usually that doesnt bother me, since i'm so rarely in the latter... but it's nice to know now that should i ever want to lean back, i dont have to squint n keep leaning forward to read small text, nor resize the text with half a dozen key presses. it's touches like this that make uzbl so lush. really shows the benefit of making your software configurable. ... cos then people configure it! ^_^ (the sharing of those configurations, n the good one's making it upstream should go without saying of course. viva free software!)

speaking of real treats,
this page:
http://www.uzbl.org/wiki/configtricks
paints a pretty decent picture of the potential.
if you've read this far, chances are your not one of the highly doubtful naysayers to this sort of software, so you dont likely need this kind of convincing... but maybe you'll want to show this to someone who doesnt yet get it. taking one example from that page... sharing links... how often do we share links through some site... and how much sweeter would our lives be if all it took to do so was press two keys "vr"*. BAM! rather than the lengthy process of selecting, copying, navigating, loading, clicking, pasting, waiting to load again, navigating back. sheesh!

* just for example. of course, it could be any keys you want.

... oh, and it doesnt take long to find what you're looking for with a little help from #uzbl
found how to copy the url of current page.

@cbind yu = sh 'echo -n $6 | xclip'

i missed it in the config while searching through "copy" and "url" instances... but it was hidden under "yanking" and "binds".
yu copies it to the middle click, so i added cu, to copy to the clipboard. mmm, sexy.

@cbind cu = sh 'echo -n $6 | xclip -selection clipboard'

oh sweet lordy lordy do i love uzbl. ^_^
i should have done this years ago. ... oh wait, i did. ^_^ right when uzbl was still new. ... of course, i wasnt giving it a proper chance then though. not like this time. ^_^

if there are two things on a modern computer that you'd be using pretty much all the time, and would be most worthy of learning something a bit more fancy*, it's the window manager and web browser. :)

* s/fancy/expediently useful, even if it takes a little longer to learn in the beginning/

... some time later...
... after some more use and tinkering ...

fuuuuuuuuuuuuu'!

i'm rly in love with uzbl now.

a real grower. ^_^

.. it's got me so damn enthused and excited about it. not since... idk... not since discovering xmonad, or crunchbang, have i got this excited over a piece of software.

... later yet in day 3...

well... it's got to that stage where it's late, n the brain must not be quite as sharp, as evidenced by my inability to figure out that damn change_style.sh ... wouldnt even change the default background. but then, the guy helping me in #uzbl couldnt figure it out either. as best we could, we covered all the bases, and couldnt figure it out. ... i started to suspect version incompatability.

mouse-over links showing what the link is in status would be nice... ~ too sleepy, a lil project for the morning.
~ OH! it does already! ... just couldnt see it with the default colours.

i should point out, there's loads more scripts added than i've mentioned in my todo list bellow.

#####
todo
####

####
in progress.
###

2. video download (AND/OR see #9)
3. flash cookie purge

7. no script
8. pdfs open in zathura (or whatever)
9. flash movies get watched in mplayer.
10. oohooh! want a "add to adblock list" added to the right click menu... aw, that'd b piiiimp!!"

####
complete.
###

1. adblock (still needs extra populating and updating of the block list, but it's catching most now)
5. flashblock
6. copy selected text without right click

####
no longer applicable
###

!4. open in new tab, in right click menu

uzbl, the return - day 2

2011-05-13T11:25:00.001-07:00

uzbl the return. part2.

so... it's day 2 of my 14 day uzbl experiment.
bit of a lethargic lazy day. struggling to kick both body and brain into gear after a poor sleep. so i'm not expecting any intensive geeking.

discovered adblock isnt working to satasfactory level... not sure if that's my fault, inherent inadequacy in the script, need of some subscription block list, or a duff script link, or what...

been having a couple moments getting momentarily infuriated by reaching for old firefox shortcuts, or from just not being familiar enough with the interface.

using a tabbed layout i can switch to in the window manager [xmonad] rather than tabs in the browser itself, has changed my useage style quite a bit. ... remains to be seen how this will play out when i get on with some work where i'd have previously had several ,ulti-tab browser tiels and a couple other app tiles, on the same monitor, how i'll adjust... or if i will refuse to adjust, and instead adjust my window manager, to include layout combo/combinator.

some of the config syntax still baffles me a little bit, and i've started to notice that python sluggishness... maybe one day someone will re-write it in C or some other speedy language.

ok ok... this is all starting to sound rather negative. teething problems were expected, hence the decision to dedicate two weeks to the transition. ... and my feelings toward uzbl are anything but negative. i'm loving it already, despite it's (and my) shortcomings.

though i'm not on ubuntu, this page did help keep me straight on a couple points.
http://kagashe.blogspot.com/2009/06/uzbl-new-usable-browser-on-ubuntu-904.html

for one, setting my:

XDG_DATA_HOME=~/.local/share

which i was willfully negligent on, postponing sorting it out for later. well later has passed now. :) this should make tweakages much easier... especially once i do a pile of cp -r from the examples to ~/.local/share and ~.config/uzbl (er... maybe not that last one, already made a pile of changes to that config.... maybe a diff to check)

i notice my todo list is growing rather fast. i hope to have all issues resolved long before the two weeks is up.

i was also shown luakit and jumanji, another couple of similarly lightweight n highly configurable browsers. oh yeah... we're a long way from kansas* here baby, yeah!

* firefox, etc.

normally i would install them, and try them out too... but i am committed... uzbl or bust. ^_^

even though i said yesterday i was going to stick with the default controls... i'm more than curious to see what other configurations peeps have come up with.

that's one of the greatest beauties and boons to going for this level of, what i increasingly call "unixy goodness".

at this level of unixy goodness... with that gnu|linuxy freedom, everyone's hooking up their configurations in their own unique innovativeness and creativity and imaginativeness

#####
todo
####

####
in progress.
###

1. adblock (various interesting possiblity being explored, n learning much)
2. video download
3. flash cookie purge
!4. open in new tab, in right click menu
5. flashblock
7. no script
8. pdfs open in zathura (or whatever)
9. flash movies get watched in mplayer.

####
complete.
###

6. copy selected text without right click

uzbl, the return - day 1

2011-05-13T11:24:00.001-07:00

uzbl the return.

i've been getting rather increasingly miffed with firefox. it's never really been my "favorite" browser, just the one i've ended up using for various features i felt i couldnt live without, n couldnt find in other browsers without making bigger compromises.

well.. it's time to make a serious effort to change.

as with tiling window managers, you have to stick with them for about a week before yu realise how much better it is... and after hearing fabsh on linux outlaws recently suggest people spend at least two weeks with gnome3... i plan to do the same with uzbl.

uzbl-tabbed to be precise. not readdy to give up tabs just yet, even if i do use a tiling window manager. (i did consider using surf too, but since it's based on uzbl i hear, i thought i'd skip the middleman).

currently, as i start to type this, i have both uzbl-tabbed and firefox running, and am just working out a few details to ease the transition, but i realise, the sooner i just close firefox and make a dedicated decision to stop using it, i'll transition all the more expediently (if a little more uncomfortably at the start.) ... so i plan to do that in a few minutes.

i had a little hiccough earlier when i couldnt get youtube videos to play.... uninstalling gnash soon sorted that though, and it's as seemless as it aught to be again.

i was going to start to construct a firefox-esq set of keyboard controls, but looking in the config, i soon began to realise, there was so much more potential in uzbl, and i'd be better off learning the defaults, so put that config construction on hold. i'm going to try to give the default controls the full fortnight test.

i always like to test the waters in a project's irc channel. #uzbl on freenode has a reasonably healthy 52 people in it, and rather amusingly, when i got a quirky snide unhelpful remark from one user, (to which i replied "mkay. i thought uzbl users would have more inteligent responces than that.") another user came along and apologised for them. :) a good sign of a healthy community spirit.

they* engage with issues, and enjoy learning more as they use their greater experience and knowledge to more expediently get to the nub of whatever issue you may be having.

(* of course, i cant say everyone in there is like that, but that's the general vibe and jist i picked up from my interactions.)

... i dont suggest you go in there with a wont-rtfm help-leach attitude though. .... not that you likely would if you're interested in the likes of uzbl though. ;)

about those few little niggles i mentioned earlier...

one is adblock. i've found a couple scripts for that, just looking into how to implement them now.

the other is the ability to download streamed video.

without these two features, i'll just give up on uzbl. ^_^

oh, and also ensuring i can delete all flash cookies is a biggie too... but that's such a simple little issue, i could EASILY write a script for that myself, n bind a key for it.

... ok, after spending an age trying to get uzbl-tabbed to accept this paste keybind:

@cbind c = sh "xclip -o | xclip -selection clipboard"

i discover it works fine with uzbl-browser. so, i'll see how well i get on without tabs. i dont mind. i have an ace window manager. ... and i'd rather be able to copy selected text with a ctrl-c (without having to press "i" first) than have tabs that i navigate clumsily, if i'm only allowed one or the other. (i'll check out some of those other tabbing scripts later anyways, i'm just glad i have my ctrl-c workflow restored... no more pressing i, or righclick-copy, or relying on select-middleclick (which i like to have as-well-as, not instead-of/only).

ok, it's late when i'm writing this after all that faffing around reading up about xclip not realising it's just uzbl-tabbed playing up, and it works fine in uzbl-brower. ~ i'll check on that in the morning with a fresh head...

it's not even a day in, and i already love it more than firefox.

PS. hehe... added XMonad.Layout.Tabbed and simpleTabbed, et viola, i have tabs again, sorta. ;) works well enough, so long as i dont want tabbed windows beyond full screen. ... i might finally end up getting around to XMonad-Layout-Combo or XMonad-Layout-Combinators because of this. ^_^

so, thats the jist of the state of things on day 1 of my 14 day uzbl trial run.

#####
todo
####

####
in progress.
###

2. video download
3. flash cookie purge
!4. open in new tab, in right click menu
7. no script

####
complete.
###

1. adblock
5. flashblock
6. copy selected text without right click

uzbl the return.

2011-05-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

uzbl the return.
rome wasn't built in a day, uzbl-love was though.

i've been getting rather increasingly miffed with firefox. it's never really been my "favorite" browser, just the one i've ended up using for various features i felt i couldnt live without, n couldnt find in other browsers without making bigger compromises.

well.. it's time to make a serious effort to change.

as with tiling window managers, you have to stick with them for about a week before yu realise how much better it is... and after hearing fabsh on linux outlaws recently suggest people spend at least two weeks with gnome3... i plan to do the same with uzbl.

uzbl-tabbed to be precise. not readdy to give up tabs just yet, even if i do use a tiling window manager. (i did consider using surf too, but since it's based on uzbl i hear, i thought i'd skip the middleman).

currently, as i start to type this, i have both uzbl-tabbed and firefox running, and am just working out a few details to ease the transition, but i realise, the sooner i just close firefox and make a dedicated decision to stop using it, i'll transition all the more expediently (if a little more uncomfortably at the start.) ... so i plan to do that in a few minutes.

i had a little hiccough earlier when i couldnt get youtube videos to play.... uninstalling gnash soon sorted that though, and it's as seemless as it aught to be again.

i was going to start to construct a firefox-esq set of keyboard controls, but looking in the config, i soon began to realise, there was so much more potential in uzbl, and i'd be better off learning the defaults, so put that config construction on hold. i'm going to try to give the default controls the full fortnight test.

i always like to test the waters in a project's irc channel. #uzbl on freenode has a reasonably healthy 52 people in it, and rather amusingly, when i got a quirky snide unhelpful remark from one user, (to which i replied "mkay. i thought uzbl users would have more inteligent responces than that.") another user came along and apologised for them. :) a good sign of a healthy community spirit.

they* engage with issues, and enjoy learning more as they use their greater experience and knowledge to more expediently get to the nub of whatever issue you may be having.

(* of course, i cant say everyone in there is like that, but that's the general vibe and jist i picked up from my interactions.)

... i dont suggest you go in there with a wont-rtfm help-leach attitude though. .... not that you likely would if you're interested in the likes of uzbl though. ;)

about those few little niggles i mentioned earlier...

one is adblock. i've found a couple scripts for that, just looking into how to implement them now.

the other is the ability to download streamed video.

without these two features, i'll just give up on uzbl. ^_^

oh, and also ensuring i can delete all flash cookies is a biggie too... but that's such a simple little issue, i could EASILY write a script for that myself, n bind a key for it.

... ok, after spending an age trying to get uzbl-tabbed to accept this paste keybind:

@cbind c = sh "xclip -o | xclip -selection clipboard"

i discover it works fine with uzbl-browser. so, i'll see how well i get on without tabs. i dont mind. i have an ace window manager. ... and i'd rather be able to copy selected text with a ctrl-c (without having to press "i" first) than have tabs that i navigate clumsily, if i'm only allowed one or the other. (i'll check out some of those other tabbing scripts later anyways, i'm just glad i have my ctrl-c workflow restored... no more pressing i, or righclick-copy, or relying on select-middleclick (which i like to have as-well-as, not instead-of/only).

ok, it's late when i'm writing this after all that faffing around reading up about xclip not realising it's just uzbl-tabbed playing up, and it works fine in uzbl-brower. ~ i'll check on that in the morning with a fresh head...

it's not even a day in, and i already love it more than firefox.

PS. hehe... added XMonad.Layout.Tabbed and simpleTabbed, et viola, i have tabs again, sorta. ;) works well enough, so long as i dont want tabbed windows beyond full screen. ... i might finally end up getting around to XMonad-Layout-Combo or XMonad-Layout-Combinators because of this. ^_^

so, thats the jist of the state of things on day 1 of my 14 day uzbl trial run.

#####
todo
####

####
in progress.
###

2. video download
3. flash cookie purge
!4. open in new tab, in right click menu
7. no script

####
complete.
###

1. adblock
5. flashblock
6. copy selected text without right click

when the witch gets going, the fan stops blowing.

2011-05-08T09:38:00.001-07:00

no, that title doesnt mean witch broke my laptop's fan. i did that. well, sort of. it was increasingly making weird noises... and i thought... it's just dusty, i'll skoosh some air in it and blow out the dust, and yes, some dust did come flying out, alsas, i dont think it was dust that caused it to be making noises... it seemed to be on the verge of mechanical failure... and rebooting after the skoosh of air, lead to "fan error", "beep beep", and it shuts down. so... with just 10 days left on my warranty... i've shipped it off to get mended. phew! timing! lucky i hastened it's demise, or that fan might have borked on it's own the day after the warranty expires.

so anyways....

what gets me is that this puts witch development on pause. :/

great progress was being made... and now... i sit twiddling my thumbs*. after several months of not much happening on the witch front, things had suddenly picked up again, and had just gotten to a scrotwm desktop on arch, with tilda n all the "rowan" selection of apps installed on a fresh arch, using my "witchcraft" script, which was getting bug zapped n refined at great pace... :(

part of me is thinking "why didnt i just leave that fan alone to make it's noises", and part of me is relieved that i managed to discover the seriousness of it's fault before the warranty ran out...

still... i just want a grumble.

it's actually been really good for a few other projects, where i've taken this productive energy i'm buzzing on at the mo, and made some more progress ... specifically, organising audio stuff and website stuff. (and some graphic design stuff for a client... but shshshsh, i dont want word to get out that i do graphic design stuff... it's a bit soul destroying)

well... this feels like the most pointless blog post i've made yet. ^_^ but with my warning just under the title, i feel i've given my self license to have pointless rambles like this. ;D

*not really, i'm still busy as fuck with the dozen other projects i have on the go.

Facing hard facts...

2011-03-31T20:22:00.005-07:00

Microsoft Windows is the best opperating system.
It's code is really clean, concise and expedient.
It's size is justified by it's features.
It's really secure and Microsoft never use it's inbuilt backdoors to spy on you.
It's really advanced, ahead of all the competition, and pioneers ideas and innovations for opperating systems.
It's Proprietary License is really fair and empowering.
It's very educational and informative as to how an opperating system works, and encourages knowledge and excellence.
It's performance and resource useage is really excellent.
Microsoft's Customer care is the best, as shown by their insistence on protecting you from backing up your media, with DRM features, and it's "trusted computing".
I love Microsoft, and their business model especially, which is always very ethical, honest, and fair.
I think it's time to re-install Microsoft Windows, and get rid of all my gnu/linux partitions.
What time is it? April 1st. :p

jawdropping anti-bloat.

2011-03-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

FBUI.

i was sat there, installing parabola gnu/linux on a virtual machine, and was just installing xorg, with some reluctance, at it's 150mbness.

so i hit enter, n went off to do another search for xorg alternatives. and then i encountered fbui.

FBUI.

http://home.comcast.net/~fbui/

fuck yes!

it all sounds too good to be true, and with that, experience has taught not to get hopes too high... however, when it comes to performance, the website isnt telling fibs.

the logic is flawless.

well worth reading through http://home.comcast.net/~fbui/

the more I read about fbui, the more I'm in love. X has long been lauded as the achilies heel of gnu/linux. a necessary evil of a sort. the reluctant ally, a major boon, but a major bloated pain in the ass.... fbui looks like it could sort us all out.

idk how much effort is involved in starting to port X apps to work with fbui, but oh my sweet lord.... the performance boon, the anti-bloat, the keeeeeen savvy of it... ahhh...

this is what makes free software great. that someone can come along and go "i have a better way of doing it!"

however, so far, it's a case of "so close n so far."
fbui's live cd booted ok, n I could launch apps ok... alas, mouse in virtualbox fails.

gonna have to burn a cd (its only 11mb!) to check it out native hardwise.

yes, thats right, didnt i mention ther's a live iso to try it out. THERE'S A LIVE CD FEATURING IT TO TRY OUT!

i wonder if tinycore know about this. ^_^

it's certainly not a final destination, production ready sort of tool yet, but my oh my, it's a lot further on than one might think of such a little known about gem of the free software community.

what i really love about such concise lightweight code, not highlighted to great extent on the page, is that you can read it all. easily can expect to read through the entire code of your whole os, in your own lifetime, if it's only 11mb.

bloated free software projects, like (e.g.) GNOME, are waaaay bloated, too bloated to make it even close to reasonable, that you might read all the code. three new versions will have come and gone before you likely even reach half way through. a bootable os, in just 11mb though! that's doable. and that's what i rly like. the idea of many eyes, at it's best, where not only is it available to be looked upon, but it's not such a daunting hurculean, gargantuan mamoth of a mission, that more people are likely to take it up. ok, so the source is probably more like 23mb, but that's still in a pheasible range.

with people able to have a useable os, that they can know every line of code to it, makes the userbase HIIIIGHLY competent, makes the OS super secure, and no longer susceptible to a boy crying wolf, sending you running off to get a "security" update, that patches in more malware... because you know what it all does.

idk where that takes us in terms of analogies involving raised and lowered bars, but it's a vision of a future os that makes me smile.

even gnu and free software like linux arent imune to bloating over time

2011-03-21T00:00:00.001-07:00

(05:59:12 AM) digitteknohippie: /me is gonna muse here for a mo...
(05:59:31 AM) digitteknohippie: you ever think about how much faster your os was back in 2003 to now?
(06:00:06 AM) digitteknohippie: I'm half-tempted to go fetch an old suse 9.1 disk out, and use it instead.
(06:00:26 AM) digitteknohippie: of course, just copying over some configs once installed my lightweight custom desktop apps.
(06:00:38 AM) digitteknohippie: so it'd look n feel the same as I like.
(06:00:43 AM) digitteknohippie: ... only, much faster.
(06:03:35 AM) digitteknohippie: thing is, all those times they issued "security updates", creates a mental block of "oh I can't go back, or it'll be insecure". pish posh, how insecure could it rly be. update some important core stuff, (like gcc maybe) and then install a decent firewall, maybe SElinux.... and away you go....
(06:04:07 AM) digitteknohippie: shud b secure enough. how secure do we really need anyways.
(06:06:42 AM) digitteknohippie: ^_^
(06:06:48 AM) ***digitteknohippie takes it to the blog

multilayer gimp animation

2011-03-19T02:13:00.001-07:00

multilayer gimp animation

wouldnt you like that too?

reading this, you're probably a GNU Image Manipulation Program user already.

have you also become a GIMP Animation Program user? GIMP GAP is .. well... i was going to say great.. but it's greatness is by contrast with it's absence. like a grubby cup of water you find in the middle of the desert. it's great, you wouldnt dare slag it off. but really.... you know there are better sources of hydration in the cosmos. better ways can be concieved of.

so imagine, instead of using layers as frames, have the dimension of frames 90 degrees to the dimension of layers. ... er... i mean, so your timeline, each frame, sees all layers. so that it's sort of like taking GIMP [(like photoshop)] to make, uhh, ... "GIMPeffects" [(like aftereffects)]. sort of.

but see, it'd be better in many ways, than an after-effects equivalent in free software.

when i used after effects, i always loved it, but i always wished it was more like photoshop with animation.

now that i have gimp gap, i wish it was more like i had envisioned back in the day.

so i make this open suggestion to the community.

non-linear editing features for gimp, for the most awesome video effects application ever? mmmm

can you picture it? keyframeable layers, transition morphs, ...heck, even some effective non-destructive editing!

does this make sence to you? need me to draw some mock-ups to try to explain the vision?

ugh, that's not what i like to see...

2011-03-12T03:16:00.000-08:00

[digit@LevinRhan ~]$ sudo pacman -S kdepim-akregator
resolving dependencies...
warning: provider package was selected (phonon-gstreamer provides phonon-backend)
looking for inter-conflicts...

Targets (43): clucene-0.9.21b-1 exiv2-0.21.1-1 strigi-git20110107-2 attica-0.2.0-1 raptor-1.4.21-2 rasqal-0.9.21-1 redland-1.0.12-5
libiodbc-3.52.7-4 virtuoso-6.1.2-1 soprano-2.6.0-1 shared-desktop-ontologies-0.6.0-1 qca-2.0.3-1 libdbusmenu-qt-0.8.0-1
polkit-qt-0.99.0-1 grantlee-0.1.8-1 jasper-1.900.1-6 phonon-gstreamer-4.4.4-1 phonon-4.4.4-1 upower-0.9.8-2
docbook-xml-4.5-4 docbook-xsl-1.76.1-1 kdelibs-4.6.1-2 pth-2.0.7-3 gnupg-1.4.11-2 pinentry-0.8.1-1 libksba-1.0.8-1
libassuan-2.0.1-1 dirmngr-1.1.0-1 gnupg2-2.0.17-1 gpgme-1.3.0-1 mysql-clients-5.5.9-1 mysql-5.5.9-1 akonadi-1.5.1-1
libical-0.46-1 kdepimlibs-4.6.1-1 kde-agent-20090801-2 ntrack-009-1 libssh-0.4.8-1 oxygen-icons-4.6.1-1
kdebase-runtime-4.6.1-1 kdepim-runtime-4.4.10-1 kdepim-libkdepim-4.4.10-1 kdepim-akregator-4.4.10-1

Total Download Size: 74.21 MB
Total Installed Size: 358.85 MB

Proceed with installation? [Y/n] n

...all that, just for a news ticker.... i think not!

i may be desperate, but not that desperate.

i may miss akregator, but not that much.

i'll stick with procrastinating on properly integrating news in xmonad with layout.gaps.

ahh, that's what i like to see...

2011-03-12T00:38:00.001-08:00

$ sudo pacman -Syu
:: Synchronizing package databases...
core is up to date
extra is up to date
community is up to date
multilib is up to date
:: Starting full system upgrade...
there is nothing to do

scrambling for scrotwm on slitaz again

2011-02-20T03:50:00.000-08:00

intro: it's been a while coming, fatigue n lethargy have been robbing me of the peef to get on with this, and having learned things are so much better when documented... i'm documenting this. what is "this"... slitaz & scrotwm, round 3. ... or 4 or 5... idk, it's hard to tell/remember. anyways, i now have learned more of the wonders and ways of "tazpkg convert", and am ready for another bout, and am far more confident than ever... certainly more confident when i was messing around with bsd compilers n stuff.

ok,

here goes, an attempt at getting scrotwm to work on slitaz. a "very sexy combo", as more people than just me, has said.

so first i find the deb file from packages.debian.at/squeeze/scrotwm.

it didnt like the 64bit, of course, silly me. lol.

so, i do:

wget http://ftp.ie.debian.org/debian/pool/main/s/scrotwm/scrotwm_0.9.20-1_i386.deb

in my virtual machine with a tester slitaz justx iso loaded.

then run:

tazpkg convert scrotwm_0.9.20-1_i386.deb

(and oh thankgoodness for tabkey autocompletion, so i dont have to type all those silly filenames out. ~ like i'm having to do for this blog entry, so excuse the errors. lol.)

and it says it managed it. (heh, and this is where i'd cross my fingers if i thought it would help, because it told me the same thing after i tried tazpkg convert on a arch-pacman of tmux... but it failed to run for more than the first frame before freezing.)

ls

confirms that the file is indeed there...

ok, so now we just do:

tazpkg install scrotwm-0.9.20-1.tazpkg

no need for "get-install" like you would do if installing from the slitaz repository, because it's already been "got", and is sat right infront of you in your working directory.

ok so... it says that worked! great!

but now to find out if it did actually work...

well, before i go run it, i want to just check a few things,

if the system recognises it

whatis scrotwm

whereis scrotwm

and, oh woops. looks like whatis and whereis dont work in slitaz-justx.

if the config is there.

ls /etc

... and yup, scrotwm.conf is there.

so now to try it out.

er... now, lets see, there's no login manager in slitaz, so, it's probably loading the window manager (currently openbox of course) from a xinit type file somewhere... a-ha...

ls -a

run from the home directory reveals the likely suspect. ".xinitrc"
and it's a rather interesting and somewhat robust configuration they've opted for. i know i'm not really going to need any of this... so, i'm going to delete it all (saving the openbox line, and then commenting it out. ... and then of course, add a line for scrotwm.

~woops i just about choked on my saliva there... got a little excited.

ok, so i close openbox

killall openbox

thinking that was the easiest way to drop me back out to a command line or have x restart, n it would then load scrowm, with my newly forumlated .xinitrc.

no joy...
oh dear.

seems there is a login manager (i'm guessing it's slim)

and now it wont let me login. seems i've borked it.

pressing f1 in slim, lets me cycle through to see the choices... e17, openbox, and jwm. :/

had i known slim was there, i would have edited it's config instead of /as well as, the .xinitrc

...

... ...

... ... ...

ok.
i knew this was just a tester anyways. i had planned on testing it to the point of seeing that it actually works... but it is enough to know that it at least converts and installs.

so i might as well take my ass to the apropriate "prewitch" virtual machine, and run my wget, convert and install on it... and be more careful about editing the wm launcher this time.

...

... to be continued...

..
.

just a screenshot of the day in the life of digit

2011-02-14T20:03:00.001-08:00

http://ompldr.org/vN2Zmag/2011-02-14--1297716887_2880x1200_scrot.png

^_^ that is all.

mare freedomware!

2011-02-01T12:46:00.000-08:00

where do we go to get hardware not encumbered by planned obselecense?

it's surely starting to exist now right?

i mean, there is a "open-source" hardware movement, right?

so surely, it's a freedomware movement too... right?

...

i mean, i just started to notice the button on my laptop starting to get a bit wobbly... and i'm almost out of my extended warranty...

so it makes me think... i cant be fucked with my hardware being encumbered with the same problems that drove me away from proprietary software anymore. i want my next hardware, to be genuinely more future-proofed.

it doesnt seem enough anymore that "yay, i'm using free software now, so i have the freedom to take not just my data, but my software, with me, wherever i go, and do with it whatever i want.", typically, taking it from obselete or broken hardware, and onto the new machine.... that's just gonna be expensive.

i still have my first pc's case... and have plans for a nice lil hack job to put some working guts of a pc back in there again.... but i am reluctant to buy something that's likely to fail....

it's a troubling prospect, that due to the relatively, disproportionately, stageringly high rate of turn out of new advancement (relative to the magnitude of those actual advancves) and obselecense in computing hardware technology, that it may be one of the hardest areas of material tools/items to have overcome this flaw in our system, to take out of the obselecense cycle, despite it being taken out of the elevated consumption "economic" paradigm.

we dont really have emancipation technology while we are on the recieving (/milked) end of the separationist hardware manufacturers, intent on having us come back to them to buy new hardware soon.

free software, as defined by the free software foundation (fsf.org), is true freedomware, which enables us to overcome any limitations, flaws, shortcomings, imposed by the manufacturer, for whatever reason it may have been so, incompetence, neglect, or intent*, and allows us to make the apropriate amendmends, and share that with others, and share in the amendments others have made and shared too.

that's basically the fundamental principle by which i understood free software to be inevitably and inescapably the better choice over any of the offerings of proprietary software.

and why not have that same idea for all our hardware too, right?

and for all ideas... like our political modalities, and our legal systems...

no to hardware because of the energy costs of production?

but you see, that high prohibitive cost, is part of the proprietary protectionism? we can freedomware our way out of that problem. there are already the jigsaw pieces to facilitate our emancipations through technological means... we just need to put them together and apply.

no to political modalities and legal systems because of ideological siezures?

but you see, there can be many co-existing systems/projects, and they can all be forked, and undergo refining. same could even be done for economica paradigms and religions... or at least ecconomic systems and codes of living well.

but i digress...

hardware... right...

um... nope... i think i was done. ^_^

anyways, you see... the existence of this idea, now makes the old / current system untenable... just why would i ever want to subject myself to it now that i've seen the better way? it's just so completly unfeasable, without some kind of grosse coersion... and that's the kind of shit that breeds uprisings... n the elite dont want that... they've learned, covert tyranny is the way... not rocking the boat ncreating uprisings is the way... and so... "the market" damn well better start catering for this newfound unshifting preference for non-obsolete'ing 'wares. n that may indeed mean, those of us who realise this, need to take matters into our own hands....

... can u imagine it... a new computer system coming out, that's not only backwards and forwards compatable with the existing systems, but even more modularised to to be even more universally compatible, interchangeable, upgradeable... and when i say upgradeable, i mean like... adaptable, while everything being re-useable, or at least, easy-recycle-ready. so that next time you buy a piece of hardware, it's warranty is not just one year, not just three years, not just ten years, not just for life... but forever! ... so that, you can buy it thinking "my great great great great great great great great grandson will be able to enjoy this."

free software developers dont make software to be crap, because they most of the time, are making it for themselves too. same can be true of our hardware.

k, now i'm done. ^_^

*see duty of care law.

EXPLETIVE I LOVE

2010-11-11T15:48:00.000-08:00

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.

open source hardware.

2010-11-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

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. :)

oh yeah, i forgot i blogged about my new arch

2010-10-26T18:33:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2010-10-23T05:05:00.000-07:00

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. :)

pimped you a desktop for great good.

2010-10-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

:)

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. :)

'nix still got it, wastedartist lub'n it

2010-10-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

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."

squishboom, toorox, n stuff.

2010-10-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

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!

more flattry

2010-09-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-09-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

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. :)

dd CHAAAAAARGE!

2010-07-28T15:11:00.001-07:00

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!

feed the contributor

2010-07-24T20:01:00.001-07:00

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.

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

2010-07-12T17:37:00.000-07:00

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.

hypnobash. XD

2010-07-07T04:02:00.000-07:00

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

an odd M$ phonecall

2010-07-06T12:57:00.000-07:00

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

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

2010-07-04T21:11:00.001-07:00

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!

freedomwhere

2010-07-02T20:03:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-02T10:37:00.001-07:00

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.

witch

2010-05-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

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/ |

weight of a duck?

2010-04-29T06:16:00.001-07:00

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

witches! BURN THEM!

2010-04-22T01:37:00.000-07:00

...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

LevinRhan gets fed up with masked packages

2010-04-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

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

o noez

2010-04-20T01:01:00.001-07:00

"...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?

yacb

2010-04-16T09:15:00.000-07:00

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]
Active Stop Button 1.3.0
BarTab 1.5.1
BetterPrivacy 1.47.4
Compact Menu 2 3.1.1
DownloadHelper 4.7.3
Flagfox 4.0.4
Flashblock 1.5.13
Ghostery 2.0.3
MR Tech Toolkit 6.0.4
NoScript 1.9.9.63
Packed Menu 1.0
Tab Mix Plus 0.3.8.2
Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out (TACO) 2.0
The DoGooder 1.0.3

Installed Themes: [4]
Black Stratini 2.1
Classic Compact 3.6.0
Default
Stratini 2.1

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. :)

Don't be wrapped in plastic!

2010-04-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-04-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

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.

recent apps of admiration...

2010-03-27T10:24:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-03-27T10:09:00.001-07:00

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. :)

no squish, but i spied my old friend dux.

2010-03-10T17:01:00.001-08:00

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.

2010-03-02T09:02:00.000-08:00

ok, so i was just starting to investigate my qbb idea, n wondered if i could use tint as a base. but then got engrossed in editing my config... didnt even get so far as to download the source to look at.

but i managed to tighten it up a bit so it's that little more practical, and pixel perfect.

utter gorgeous. no squandering screen space on boarders.

here's the tint2 config rc file contents:

#---------------------------------------------
# TINT2 CONFIG FILE
#---------------------------------------------
# For more information about tint2, see:
# http://code.google.com/p/tint2/wiki/Welcome
#
# For more config file examples, see:
# http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic/3232/my-tint2-config/
#---------------------------------------------
# BACKGROUND AND BORDER
#---------------------------------------------
rounded = 0
border_width = 1
background_color = #170017 9
border_color = #FFFFEE 30

rounded = 0
border_width = 0
background_color = #ffffff 25
border_color = #170017 75

rounded = 0
border_width = 0
background_color = #ffffff 0
border_color = #ffffff 0

#---------------------------------------------
# PANEL
#---------------------------------------------
panel_monitor = all
panel_position = bottom right
panel_size = 92% 19
panel_margin = 0 0
panel_padding = 2 0
font_shadow = 0
panel_background_id = 0

#---------------------------------------------
# TASKBAR
#---------------------------------------------
taskbar_mode = multi_desktop
taskbar_padding = 0 0 0
taskbar_background_id = 1

#---------------------------------------------
# TASKS
#---------------------------------------------
task_icon = 1
task_text = 0
task_width = 40
task_centered = 1
task_padding = -1 -2
task_font = sans 7
task_font_color = #ffffff 70
task_active_font_color = #ffffff 85
task_background_id = 3
task_active_background_id = 2

#---------------------------------------------
# SYSTRAYBAR
#---------------------------------------------
systray_padding = -2 -1 -2
systray_background_id = 0

#---------------------------------------------
# CLOCK
#---------------------------------------------
time1_format = %Y%m%d %H:%M:%S
time1_font = sans 19
time2_format =
time2_font = sans 0
clock_font_color = #ffffff 76
clock_padding = 0 0
clock_background_id = 0

#---------------------------------------------
# BATTERY
#---------------------------------------------
#battery = 0
#battery_low_status = 7
#battery_low_cmd = notify-send "battery low"
#bat1_font = sans 8
#bat2_font = sans 6
#battery_font_color = #ffffff 76
#battery_padding = 1 0
#battery_background_id = 0

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

qbb

2010-03-02T07:15:00.000-08:00

ok, its come to that time again when i need to reach beyond my current ken. i need an app the likes of which do not yet exist, to the level i seek.

i already imagine a few paths i could take to achieve it, but let me paint you a picture of the outcome...

if you know tint, and conky, you'll be half way familiar with the direction i'm taking this. i want two things here really.

a rss feed ticker bar, and a simple lightweight pannel button maker.

same app or not?   idc. but these are two features i feel are lacking from my current squishboom.

the button maker, i'd love if i could just have it define the "depth" (how far from edge of screen/next panel), then each button can be a default size, an equal share of remaining space, or icon a custom size. clicking on it causes it to do whatever customiseable action you want, and right clicking grants access to the properties of the button (and even setting up shortcutting these settings to higher levels in the rightclick menu), the panel (like it's depth, location, colour&alpha, other), and even the application or action.

the rss ticker, main key feature is the ability to get it to open in browser, the links clicked on.   or even into the likes of gpodder if applicable.

the rss ticker could easy be like an "applet" type thingy which is just like another button.... since they are of custom sizing, ken?

right... i'm gonna go post this garbage somewhere on the net so i find it years later when skilled enough to make something like that in an afternoon and be able to choose which languages to best use.

u-oh... this blog i just jumped into is asking for a title... i never thought of a title... ok... lets try not to be egoistic, no "digits button bar" or anything.... ooh!    i know... since i recently decided to call dibs on "Q" for my "Desktop Environment" (QDE, cool huh?), i should call it qbb.      the q button bar. the qde button bar, the q desktop environment button bar.    the qbb. :)

Konqueror is Still the Best Browser & Best File Manager.

2010-02-05T12:21:00.001-08:00

....

well... that mighta seemed uncharacteristic of me to say that, if you only know me as the guy who raves on about the likes of slitaz, crunchbang, inx, minuet, kolibri, icaros, arch, crux, motho ke botho (or whatever). but it's true, when i moved to open source; to gnu; to linux, it was to suse, and kde (though they [old novel] do tend to do equal justice to both the biggies, gnome and kde). besides me doing my bit about yast, it was konqueror, that most impressed me. when everyone else was either still stuck in the wintard bin using explorer, or a few raving about firefox, it was konqueror that i always lauded for it's greatness.

to this day there are things you can "just do" in konqueror, that take loadsa fumbling or addons with firefox, or cant even do at all as far as i can see. ok sure, the addons can extend firefox to be capable of some pretty neat tricks that rival konqueror's. but konqueror does it out of the box, wherever you go, there are a few coolnesses that konqueror has in spades beyond any other.

the view, to start somewhere relatively simple. can you split your window in your browser? or your file manager? konqueror is both, and does both effortlessly. did i mention you can have your terminal in there too? one can pretty much live in just konqueror, much like folks claim is so for emacs i've heard... i want to know where the konqueror fanboys hang out. idk if they are on the kde4 bandwaggon yet, but it's not for me, at least not yet, and i dont think ever.

konqueror as a web browser can even tell the websites that you are.. well, any identity config you like... a ppc mac using explorer? sure, tell the websites you visit thats what you are. :) its an amusing little feature for some, but to others, a comforting extra little trick to add to your security.

as a file manager, it's the best tool i've ever used for ftp.

and did i mention you can have a terminal in there too? :D

hey, if you're reading this, and love konqueror too, and wanna point out the other cool stuff it does, please pitch in... cos as much as i love the teenyness of the likes of pcmanfm, and midori (or even "links2 -g"), it's just not the same.

...

dont worry everyone, i'm not going to bloat up squishboom with konqueror. u wanna do that, u can do that, but it's not going in as default.

oh yeah, squishboom development has resumed, n i'm just gunning straight for putting something together that's releasable, then see what feedback it receives, see what i missed, what i broke, etc.

.*

ps, big shout out n much love to tha other peeps with 'bang projects on the go. willxtreme, bluejeans, lovin yer archbang n squeezebang stuff... do remember to make it like the crunchbang, n not the personal cloggage, less is more is what i'm sayin. ;) lol. n i aint practicing what i preach, but then, i'm not trying to make another crunchbang-on-a-diferent-base (at least not with squishboom)... i'm creating a performance tweek and interface augment mainly. ;) different goals. i do like the going wild by stripping it back to cli apps only. especially after trying INX. anyone want to learn linux skills you can take anywhere, and see how welcoming the command line actually is once you get shown a couple things in a fun n friendly way? yeah, INX is for you! lol. naw, seriously, i have added INX tutorials to my list of things i think should be mandatory on the school curriculum... for a while the list consisted of:

Item 1 : Install Slackware.

but now it's also populated with, as i said, "Item 2 : Put an INX CD in yout computer and restart it, n follow the instructions and menus. :)"

and in case anyone is not getting it (which i'll be surprised if they're still reading..)

this is FREE software.

FREE!

FREE BEER!

FREE SPEECH!

FREEEEEEEEDOM!

ok?

k.

yet another couple rants and rambles about linux.

2010-01-16T19:16:00.001-08:00

i had a couple rants n rambles on a facebook comments for the pc, mac or linux question.

GNU+Linux! Or any other open-source software, there are plenty others besides linux kernel based free operating systems. shop around, there's plenty to choose from, and easy to try 'em out since they are FREE!!!!

but really, when we say linux.... which one are we talking about? there are literally THOUSANDS of flavours of linux distros to choose from!!!

i ascribe the matter not to be mere shallow vanity, loyalty or preference, but a very important issue regarding one's rights and freedom.

many champion the cause of open-source for it's pragmatic benefits to the development process, making better software, developing faster, and more diversity to choose from, faster running, no viruses, etc... See More
I think the more important matters revolve around assurance of no spyware, and freedom.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy
http://www.fsf.org

if you can use it?? who cant use linux? it's pish easy. gOS, Ubuntu, Slax, Puppy, etc. so many noob friendly distributions these days.

oh, do you mean like if you're boss or work are forcing you.. yeah, that'd suck.

amazed at some of the comments from wintards here. methinks they never actually tried anything else.

i use linux for making music and artwork. i know people who use it for games, for office stuff, for networking stuff (obviously), for engineering stuff, for software development and programming stuff, for super computer stuff, for cracking and security testing stuff, for a backup os to rescue their data when windoze breaks, for astronomy stuff, for nerdy science stuff, for simple media (music n video) stuff, for DJ/VJ stuff, and on and on and on.

i stopped using my old windoze when i saw how much faster linux was. how much better it makes use of ram. how many times more stuff i could have open at any one time on older hardware using linux, than i could even on newer hardware running windows. it was insane!... See More

windows was too restrictive, and i kept pushing it harder than it liked to go, getting blue screened too often for comfort.

i ran my first linux desktop for 6 months solid, with HEAVY use, without ever restarting (!!!), no problems. only reason i had to stop at 6 months was because my flatmate didnt pay the electricity bill!

some folks try one linux distribution for a day, n give up. they missed the point. there is not just one-linux-distribution-fits-all. there are hundreds to choose from, so choose something like you want, and then u can completely customise it even further to juuuust like you want it. so the question windows, mac or linux is a bit of a misrepresentation.
it should be windows, mac, fedora linux, ubuntu linux, suse linux, gentoo linux, debian linux, slackware linux, etc etc etc etc, and then also mention, reactos, haiku, aros, irix, unix, solaris, riscos, and on and on with all the others that also so rarely get a mention. ... and of course mention all the BSD's too.

http://makethemove.net/
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

mmmm, freedom.

i still have winxp installed too... but i just dont bother ever booting up into it. no point waiting for a bloated piece of crap like that take 10 minutes to boot up and settle down, just so i can fragment my harddrive, get viruses, have to constantly maintain spyware checking and anti virus, avoid certain sites cause they'll infect me, choke out all my 2 gig of ram in no time, and not be able to open a hundred apps if i feel like it because it'd choke and grind to a halt after probably not even a dozen.

seriously... if you think windows is the best, you've not tried the alternatives.
...(or somehow missed all it's failings and it does miraculously suit your needs... like if u never go online, and just do software testing for windows.) :P

Mac's are just a noob-friendly coated BSD these days now anyways, so u might as well switch to a free BSD distro if you are a mac user, so then u can poke around under the hood easier, get to learn some of the more cool stuff.
...and it wont cost u ridiculous amounts.

frankly, i dont see any reason not to at least have a free operating system AS WELL AS your expensive corporate-ware. and there are plenty reasons to go for it, no matter your needs or skill level.

"i have a question for everybody how many games can u run linux, mac? how many design software for CAD can u run on linux,mac not really any? Solidworks is a big time software for CAD. Solidworks can only run on windows. Solidworks is a big time software in the world next to pro/e. i am a windows Fanatic. and always will be. i tried linux as couple of times. but to install games u have to use wine and that sucks."

yes... using wine does suck. almost as much as having to pay a weeks wage to the richest corporation in the world, just to rent out a piece of your harddrive to them. :P actually, not "almost as much"... it's still way better. ;P
... See More
there are already numerous open-source AND proprietary games titles that run on linux though. one big name example, "id" open-source all their titles after a little while.

the day all games developer's finally "get it" n switch to an open-source development model, is the day when the quality of games really explodes.

proprietary development model cannot compete again open-source model. handful of guys in an office, compared to millions of users and developers and enthusiasts around the world... hrmmm. :P

there's loadsa cad programs for both mac and linux. what frikkin universe r u living in?
and not only that, but u can try your much loved "solid works" in wine on your 'nix install. and there are always virtual machines.
better yet though, you'd join a development team to help make your dream cad program, even better than solid works, like all the great pioneers of their respective feilds have done throughout history. from aristotle, to mozart, to da vinci, to tesla, to rms... they all made their own tools. except now with open source software, it's easier... the community shares most of the work for you. :)

seriously, this isnt an "OR" situation. it's "AND/OR". ;)

u can still stubbornly be a windoze fanboy for life, even if you do have a 'nix install too.

i wonder, which distros did u try, and when, and for how long?

s'pose i shuda just started with this (lol):
currently installed and use:

CRUNCHBANG LINUX #! 9.04 (heavily customised)
Sabayon Linux 3.5 (heavily customised)

cant wait for vlmc. then linux & opensource will (i presume) finally have an excellent video editor.... cos frankly the current offerings are all a bit unstable and lacking in one respect or another.

as a creative chap, i cant stand macs.
i know, sounds weird right?

anyone notice, there are more comments about how crap windoze is than there are for mac or linux? :D i wonder why that is? ;P

if only microsoft (and apple for that matter), would stop being such selfish greedy whores who want to spy on you... and release their source-code!

then i might move back to windoze... once we can see what's in it, and gut out the corporate spyware crap, and let the community develop the kernel and api to be even better. and maybe even find a way of making the whole os secure enough to be safe to use online.

...cos despite all my previous comments here... there are divisions of microsoft who have done some cool stuff! NTFS, and the NT kernel... really quite cool! and what about all those other lightning quick things they did, just to show off, but didnt release them!? wtf. and the whole seadragon thing, WOW! very special.

alas, thats me about run out of cool things to say about microsoft, and their coolness is undermined by the lack of freedom conferred to the users.

if you read my previous comments, you can probably guess i have thousands of positive comments to make about free open-source software. :)

well, i'm gonna stop commenting here, i hope it's been an education for some of you who didnt know what linux is.

quick squishboom update and orklug!!!

2009-12-15T08:29:00.001-08:00

squishboomwise.

got a clearer picture of what needs doing for squishboom.
revising pris (the post reinstallation script) into prip (the post reinstallation program), where config files will be stored online and added with a wget, as well as stripping it down to be cleaner, and also adding more elaborate and user friendly options learned from studying crunchbang's alternative installation method.

but all of that's been put on a short term temporary hold while i help with some initial adminnery for...

orklug!

orklug being the shorthand of Orkney Linux User Group. much thnx to andrew who really took to the idea and has been the principle initiator in getting us going. i may have been the first to throw the idea out there, but it wouldnt have happened n gotten so far if it werent for aorkwa.
so anyways...

now we've got our wiki on the go:
http://orklug.org.uk

our (low trafic) mailing list currently on:
http://groups.google.com/group/orklug
~ though theres talk of soon moving to gnu's mailman.

a presence on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=198032207797

and on identica:
http://identi.ca/group/orklug

and we even have our very own irc chatroom now too on freenode, which can be accessed via a simple web interface here: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=orklug
or of course whatever your preference of irc application.
(i'm just being a sucker for convenience and using pidgin, since i already have a handful of other chat protocols i use on that)

so come say hi on freenode #orklug

our number are still small, but considering we've only really been properly at it for about a day now, i say we're going pretty strong, n off to a good start.

wont be long before the conversation turns to "lets organise a meet!"

:D

happy days. :)

squishboom

2009-11-25T15:33:00.000-08:00

been making squishboom pre-alphas. gearing up for an alpha release, hoping for a rapid transition there-after from alpha through beta to official.
more to come....

edit

... COCK! if only i had re-ran remastersys... i've just got back into my squishboom pre-alpha2 desktop, having previously intended to be in my squishboom alpha desktop. note to self, always remember when in a unetbootin live-cd/usb environment instead of a real install. and if in that situation, always be sure to save anything you need elsewhere. oh phew, that reminds me *checks* at least i saved my tips desktop background image that's to be used as the default in squishboom. it only survived as i was saving the gimp xcf multi-layered file onmy hd, rather than what i thought was the pendrive, but was actually the casper inside the pendrive. heh. well... thats been about 7 hours of gutting and cleaning and rescripting completely down the pisser, what a pisser. gah. well, that was hard, n i hope, well learned.

2009-11-05T20:00:00.000-08:00

http://omploader.org/vMnBnbw/cbdtbggf001.png
http://omploader.org/vMnBncA/cbdtbggf002.png
http://omploader.org/vMnBncQ/cbdtbggf003.png
http://omploader.org/vMnBncw/cbdtbggf004.png
http://omploader.org/vMnBndg/cbdtbggf005.png

some crunchbang desktopbackgrounds.

as seen here: http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/post/44321/#p44321

Linux*

2009-11-05T17:07:00.000-08:00

it's the potential

"i need a better screwdriver... times nine."

2009-11-05T16:22:00.000-08:00

... said my friend as he dismantles the innards of a perfectly working 900 athlon 768mb greybox.
he's prepping the old case to hold his new box's components while hes waiting for his new psu to arrive.

i think that old machine is just the perfect age for linux. linux would work really well on such a spec machine. really really well. alotta bang for those numbers.

"it's made out of stuff, it'll be alright" was another comment... i dont quite know the context, i wasnt listening, but it sounded cool, so it made it into this blog.

anyways, this little project he has going on here, and others we were talking about earlier has got me thinking geeky again... and dont worry, some of it isnt linux specific, so fans of other operating systems can play along too....

(hehe, yeah, i know my readership of this blog is currently about 0. and that's including me (i dont even read this blog). i know someday someone will read it, and just maybe, someday someone will get a kick outta my rambling....)

stick a computer in a freezer!

there, slapped you in the face with the doozey there, right when u thought i was gonna ramble on pointlessly again... ;D an idea inspired upon seeing hte operational temperature range of some components.

the obvious thing that stands out at first of course is... the overclocking potential! If you didnt think that immediately upon reading the words "stick a computer in a freezer" then maybe this isnt the blog for you. :D or maybe it is! and you need to stick around all the more. :D

there are small freezers available pretty cheap, and big enough to house your box in. however... i do wonder about how well each tech would stand up, the heat source, inside the tiny box trying to keep cool. when i first thought of the idea i was thinking a guy at his desk in a meat locker.... this idea very quickly moved on to putting the human interface outside. i was still thinking large room freezers while my friend was the first i think to put it into the realms of "doable". especially when i urged him to look for freezers on a shopping search.

i was actually gonna ramble on and make this another full length ramble... but heck... sticking a computer in a freezer does it for me. got mah geek on.

arty musings from outside the matrix

2009-11-02T23:03:00.000-08:00

http://n3wt0n.com/blog/?p=326

having been a long time fan of musagi, it is a joy to get to experience another creation from the same genius, "sfxr". it's a gorgeous little app for making sound effects. oh my... my music is gonna take another change of direction.... crap... i was really hoping to get the latest album i had been working on polished off and released... but i can see this will interfere with that plan. :)

now if only i could get musagi and gungirlsequencer (or another similar basic audio sequencer in e-jay style) on the go too... musically, i'd be provisioned with everything i need then.

lmms and ardour, they're nice to have, but not quite my preference for how i like to compose my musical creations. for the most part.

for my animation stuff, i still feel a little short handed. i miss the likes of animation shop. gimp's gap, it just dont cut the mustard when ya need workflow. still early developement for it.

i just recently started playing around with synfig studio, a simple vector graphics animation package (which i originally thought was more bitmap oriented), and it's showing some promise.

i also miss adobe after effects a bit. but this is my own doing. i chose this path, i chose to renounce slavery and proprietary and all that crap. idk if there anything close to similar in the open source community yet.

blender and softimage|XSI.
mmm. i do miss softimage from time to time. i recieved some top notch intensive training on it, and that helped me be familiar with it, and get some level of workflow outta it. my learnings with blender have been far more sparse, far less intensive, and less focussed with a hundred other things on my plate, and as a result, there are times in blender when i still, even years removed, find myself thinking in softimage terms.

still, i'd never get to poke under the hood of softimage, so i know i'm on the right path with blender.

this is a point i think many folks must look at me and think me a fool for opting to go for a kinda richardstallmanesque renunciation of proprietary software. i'm in it for the longer view, i see not only which way the wind is blowing, so to speak, but i see just how much faster and further i'll go if i steer my ship into those winds. the sooner i'm with them, the better. of course, (leaving the sailing analogy) i'll need to learn alot more.
.....this is not a bad thing.
this is not a "con", it is very much a "pro".
i do not want to be dumbed down by plastic wrapped convenience, i want to know how things work.

i dont want to be hostage to dependance, i want to be empowered with competence.
this is the difference.

so i choose non-proprietary as much as possible.... tho convenience does have me reaching for proprietary flash still, rather than the fsf initiative versions of GPL released flash. ideally though, if i was imbuing myself with the spirit of socrates and empiricus or other philosophers who made a point of sticking ot yer guns, then i'd stick to learning how to program, how to hack my own code to get it to work.... again... convenience traps the lazy and impatient.

ok, i'm straying wildly again...

but thats ok i suppose. its my blog, and i can do what i like. no fascist mod wanting to keep up appearances and excersize their powers of authority over me here. :D

so yeah... it's all on topic really, i just think broadly. :D

lemme pull it back round for you to see i'm correct in asserting i'm still on topic.

so as an artist, with fanciful delusions of grandure, of being up there with the greats, i too, like them, prefer to retain more control over my tools, and therefor over my artwork.

i want to make my own paints, fetch my own ingredients for the paints, etc. metaphorically speaking.

my paint comes in the form of complex arrangements of ones and zeros.

i could just leave it to the whim of the authorities, or i could (like the sentiment in the video in my last blog depicted), renounce the esstablishment, and do something actually progressive for us all. :)

heh, talk about limiting beliefs.... i've just noticed i've been holding myself back because of what i think other people think, because i think myself incapable of explaining or them incapable of understanding, the alternative sence of worth outside the stringent linear quantitative monetary terms.

there's the old idea (i once read in a book on taoism) that artists should not make money from art, that profit should be kept seperate from art, that art is above profiteering, that an artist would never lower themselves to be as low as the businessman, who is only a peg above the criminal.

... as someone identifyingy themselves with being an artist, you can see why i'd take to that idea. :D especially living in the society we do where businessmen have been allowed to seize too much power and status, and pressure the rest of us to conform to their ways.... it seems quite the paradise utopian society where businessmen are regarded as just barely better than criminals and artists just barely worse than saints. :)

even tho i think it's fading these days, there's still some remaining residual ridicule and demonising of open-soure freedom-software folks. probably exponentially increasing now, folks are starting to see free software in a rather divine light. it is rather saintly and angelic. it's very nice. "sharing", "community"... these are two big words in the ... community. whether you're calling it the open-source community or the more die-hard free(dom) software community, we're effectively all the same community. the ven diagram would be quite clear on this i'm sure. there's ecconomies of gifting, of giving, without expectation of anything in return. we've left the paradigm so heavily enforced upon us by dominator industrialists. we're more tesla, than westinghouse. we're achieving what the technocrats of lefist political ideologies dreamed of. ok, sure, so far we're pretty much only achieving this in digital realms. but i think its not long now before the dam bursts completely, and the corporatist oligarch can no longer plug the leak of all the technologies which will set us free. this will be none other than the surfacing of all those sci-fi technologies.... the total liberation of man from uneceassry toil. we'll have zero-point vacuum energy devices, capable of providing all our energy needs, we'll have 3d printers and hologram technology synthesizing to produce star-trek like replicators and other fabrication devices, geet engines, water fuel, solar paint, and piles and piles of other stuff... i could go on and on, and i'd still never scratch the surface of all the liberationary technologies that ALREADY EXIST and the many more which have yet to be imagined.

think i'm off topic again?

nope.

this is the point.

this is exactly why i, as an artist went to open source software over proprietary.

this is exactly the thing which will enable artists of the world continue to create their art, and do so without profit incentive-ising them, distracting them. ( to show that i still communicate my thoughts in ted-talks videos: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html ;D )

"why do you have to pay to live on the world you are born on?" asked the visitor to our world.

zero obliged outgoings.

and why not?

only if you are addicted to having a billion crypto-slaves should you baulk at the idea, and even then... you aught to reccognise the precarious situation you're in as master of a billion slaves who are at risk of waking up to realise they are but slaves for you... and they might not like it.

so yeah... i take my choice of software pretty seriously huh. :D

i got told in one of those silly little internet quizes recently that i was from arcutus, and as such, i'm a 5th dimensional being with a strong inclination to do things forthe benefit of all. well, idk if i'm from arturus, but the rest seemed to fit. ;)

time to beam up to my ship http://omploader.org/vMm9wcQ/booingwhirie1.wav
(first sound i just made in sfxr)

just a quick little stichato ramble on various linuxy things.

2009-11-02T22:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_deutsch_a_new_way_to_explain_explanation.html

i really took to the sentiment expressed in the middle of this video, regarding the renounciation of authorities as the source of truth as being the principle of progressing our knowledge.

i was 5 when i decided the church was much hulabaloo about a storybook. i was about 6 or 7 when i hit upon the idea that maybe the teachers werent smarter than me. i was just barely a teen, barely having used win95, when i decided microsoft were not the pinnacle of human potential reflected technologically in our software. maybe i was always destined to choose opensource, freedom, linux, etc.

so anyways. i was playing around with my slax distros again... getting a bit of a headache from the wifi problems i'm havign with the slax based and davix based pair of distros i'm re-working. it's looking like it might be a bit more of a pain in the arse than i first thought to get it to have a one-size-fits-all ootb wifi solution. most of my headache though was when internet here went down for a couple hours. that was not amusing... me fiddling around trying to get something to work when it had no chance, and all my tests were giving me back false fail results. well, thats another couple hours i'll have to relive. so i need a break from that for a bit. might as well ramble a bit then eh? :D

so once my internet came back on, one o the first things i did brought me to my local forum where i posted a reply in a thread about easy ways to startlinux, which i'll share C&P style here.

=====
other similar installation methods from other linux distributions (incase xandros linux doesnt suit):

http://wubi-installer.org/ Ubuntu! wubi=Windows UBuntu Installer. as in the above example, no partitioning is required, very simple installation wizard.

http://goodbye-microsoft.com/ Debian GNU/Linux! again, no partitioning required. but will require you to know your hardware very intimately, and know a bit more about linux. not advised for the average beginner. (tho do try it to see anyways. you can always leave the installer uncompleted on your machine, and still use windows with no probs while you go learn how to get through the l33t hurdles.)

http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/Sauver-18423.shtml Sauver Linux. yet another linux distribution offering this kind of installation. except sauver doesnt seem to offer any other kind of installation. (i never got the graphics working in it, so idk what its like).

using the 4 above methods, you might later come across little niggles and nuisances about the way the filesystem isnt accessible in a more familiar standardised way... idk... most folks probably wont find an issue with this. but if you're a proper nerd, you'll want to go do a proper install for your multi-boot.

then there are other methods too...

virtualbox.
(tho we'll all have to wear our tin-foil hats to use it if sun microsystems get taken over by oracle.)
very user friendly virtualisation method, with excellent performance. just download any (i686 compatible) operating system's installation or "live" cd/dvd .ISO file (like this tiny one for example), and follow the on-screen wizard dialog-windows upon making a new virtual machine. very easy to surf lots of different operating systems this way, without risking the operating system you are currently using to some pebcak accidental format or anything. lets you shop around for the best operating system, so you're not stuck being a wintard.
virtualbox is not only useful for surfing linuxes, you could also use it for client MS Windows virtual machines inside a Linux host OS, since linux offers much better performance, this way, you only need to use your MSWindows virtual machine when u need to use some piece of windows software you've not found an alternative for, or couldnt get to install in wine.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ not quite so much just a distribution of linux, but rather just a handy site sharing lots of helpful walk-throughs to installing various linux distributions to usb drives.

though, once you first set eyes upon unetbootin, you'll likely think pendrive linux a bit redundant. but that would be premature, because unetbootin doesnt really "install" anything. run from windows or linux, it just very conveniently puts a installation/live cd onto your usb, so that the usb drive can boot pretending it's the cd. ... so if you do choose to use unetbootin (and i wholeheartedly give it my recommendation), do keep in mind that it's more like running from a cd (only likely much much faster than your cd drive), than an actual installation. but if you can install from the cd, you can install from the unetbootin'ed version on your usb too. this is another great way of browsing through different operatingsystems/distributions like virtualbox is, except this way, you will be able to get a better feel for the native speeds, as it's not virtualised, and you dont need to be running a host system at the same time. further, unetbootin makes itself even handier, by providing a very generous and broad selection of distributions available in a drop-down menu... and it's so convenient, it goes and fetches the .ISO files from the net for you, and does the whole process of making the usb a live bootable cd environment. very plush, and so simple.

[quote]installing software ain't as easy and straightforward as windows.[/quote]
that can be a falsehood. these days there are many distributions offering solutions which make it easier to install software than it is in windows. it's all about the respository and package management in linux. open up your package manager gui in any major (and even most minor) linux distributions these days, and you'll be taken to a simple interface from which you can search/browse for software by name or purpose, and clicky clicky, and it's installed. no going to s shop to buy proprietary software, no spending money, no travel. just sat from where you are, depending on your distribution's repository, you'll likely have at least a few thousand (probably tens of thousands) of pieces of software you can install, and likely need no further explanation than "that there, thats your package manager, click/double-click on it."
i am slightly exadurating the simplicity to stop scaring people away. but suffice to say, if a repository doesnt have what you are after, you are still afforded the opportunity of doing it the manual way, the noob-feared "source installation"... and likely a few ways in between too. and just when u think you need to be a rocket scientist, chances are, you only need to be an idiot (as in "complete idiots guide to...") who knows how to use a search engine. :)

phew! what a pile of links i put in that. :D filled a whole row of tabs. hope they're o' use t' ye.

PS.

just now after posting this reply, looked at that prestopc thing ... oh. thats not like what i thought it was. :D :O
=====

and besides that, i dont really have much else to add to this post, except to say:

I LOVE LINUX!

:D

(doesnt get any less true with time.. if anything, more true)

this week, i have been mostly

2009-10-29T00:49:00.000-07:00

forewarningdisclaimer:u cant actually get any of these anywhere yet. :p it's as good as vapourware to you still at the mo. :)

the past couple days, i've been quite largely fiddling around with dux, my own personal version of a linux operating system.... it's been built upon several distributions as it's base.

when i say operating system these days, i presume everyone knows i'm talking about the whole deal, and not just the thing that you install your software to. i include the software as part of the opperating system, as i no longer see any seam. and likewise, when i say "linux", i rarely mean just the kernel. (sry richard stallman, you underestimate the power of convenience, i still love you tho)*

*reference to me having dropped the "+GNU" from GNU+Linux

i thought i'd just interject that for clarity's sake.

so yeah, dux... this is version 0.005, going on 0.005r1. built using slax. largely because it's easy. i dont have to do so much messing around. can add more modules later, n so on. it's repository, if you can call it that, may seem in a bit of disaray, but there's alot of consistent clear vision from the slax community about what can be done to really help that in the next release. and although it may not be the biggest, it is quite concise, and also packed with ways of pulling ininstallation files from pretty much anywhere to turn it into an easy to use lzm slax module.

this version of dux has collapsed on the original dux ethos. what dux in this version at least, seems to becoming more of an everyday everyman like i imagine puffinos to become. and from what i originally imagined the pure golden complete version of dux to be (the day when it's a complete re-write by me) to be closer to what wagtail is supposed to be, than puffinOS. very similar to wagtail, the transparentweight distro, just a few more enhancements, particularly for security (a clever afterthought... dux, ducks, under the radar. shame on me for having function follow name.) and maybe a few extra scripts here n there.

so anyways, dux version 0.005 and the polishing i'm doing on dux version 0.005r1 is kinda a mix of practice for both puffinos, and for the gallery distributions i'll be sporting at some point in the future. an idea i had a while back... use a linux distribution to piggieback a gallery, a portfolio. nice huh?

ok, there i go showing you a circle on a piece of packaging paper and saying "y'know, for kids!" again. :rolleyes:

so, yeah, more on topic ramblings about dux v0.005...
it's got games. when i saw dukenukem3d when puting togeher the pieces for dux, and for only 10mb,i thought, of course i have to have this! :D and a cheeky little pinball game which i have got to get the level editor for in 0.005r1. and gotta get rid of the default slax games, cos they are laaaaame. hehe. ok if you've never played a computer game before. c'mon tho... battleships and patience... :o zzzzzzzzzzzz.

so, my distributions that end up including games, aught to look a bit more happy n spritely n youthful on the games front. but still in a fairly innocent old-skool sort of way... emulators for snes,megadrive and i'll need to include the ancient stuff emulators too, for those who want to play their old atari and commodore games. :D oh yes indeed, i am considering this for use by other people besides just me.

thats the whole point of open source isnt it? the idea even predates "open source". i'm talking about the freedom to communicate, to share.... to colaborate and contribute to our futures.

anyone not yet well versed in freedoms as they pertain to software, are not likely to know the significance, and might do well to visit the philosophy page on gnu.org for a refreshing taste, a refreshing perspective... especially if there's ever been a nigglesome annoyance come your way from a large commercial software giant.

dux needs considerable refinement before it reaches the original vision's golden state. heck, it will effectively be built on wagtail, and wagtail isnt moving all that fast at themoment. not alot of motivation for a "hobbyists" distro like that. like what you might ask? like, a whole distro where all the code is kept so tight that an individual can feasibly read the sourcecode for the whole system, and it still be capable to performing all the principle tasks we expect our operating systems to be able to do.

so this current version of dux, barely deserves the name... but it's not the first of my dux to have strayed from the strict tight vision. infact, i'm not even sure anymore if i have the version number right... i dont suppose it much matters since the others dont really exist anywhere anymore.

most of this i have been getting upto from my laptop... and it's short on space compared to my multi tb workstation. so i dont bother keeping them on the hd for long. i'm not sure, but i doubt i've burned any of them to cd either.

so dux is on version 0.005 presumably... i did make at least a couple versions of puffin os too... one using slax, and at least a couple using slitaz. never made a wagtail yet. made a few un-named unbranded distros, made one for a friend on a whim in a night, made several gimpsticks, but nothing quite definitive yet. tis another project waiting for the wagtail base.

speaking of wagtail.... just as i sit here now, what i think is the most prominently obvious choice for starting a wagtail, short of LFS, is microcore/tinycore. it should be fairly easy to construct into the rudimentary parts of wagtail... and then surely it wouldnt be too hard hooking it up to run with a different package manager or two. i read in a forum someone write "i wrote a package manager, it's not hard"... that was not expected. i presumed it was hard. i guess the hard part is getting it mainstream familiarised n so on.

linux is one of those things that the more you learn the more you love it.

and when i say that... what captain subext will tell you i was really saying was something along the lines of: i was enslaved and pinned down by the proprietary corporate secrecy folks for so long that i forgot that computers, technology, science, engineering and creativity, are all about sharing, about freedom of information, and the depreivation had made me a little more sensitive to the learning endorphins.

:D

tho the paranoid conspiracy pressumer in me of course still suspects it's all a ruse, that stallman and torvalds are even in on it. that linux isnt actually goooood,and that ...

ok... idkif i can really suspect stallman... can i? damn that'd b an ace cover. who wud believe that stallman is a plant. lol.

well, thats about all the linux rambling i got for today... tis the end of my day, i need meditation, supper, some light entertainment and sleep.
...
y'know, i really thought i woulda carried more eloquence and wisdom, and less stichato and pettyness.... maybe thats something i can address in meditation, and have sorted for my next blog. :D

i make the summit farther away, it takes me higher.

2009-10-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

so, here i am, linuxxing, doing various linuxy things...
playing around casually with my xmonad configuration adding new keyboard shortcuts to launch applications, drawing up spreadsheets to work out my personal optimised keyboard layouts, reading up on various distros, particularly...

gentoo and sabayon...

i'm thinking somethin like....
"it'd b nice to have a distro on my pendrive set up just as i like for both openbox and xmonad, and work happily out of the box* on both my laptop, and my triple monitor desktop."
*in this context, if i have to roll my own, thats ok (even prefered that i can do that easily).

sabayon is still to this day the best of the bunch in my experience, for getting me leaning back on my seat smiling at my triple desktop fastest and easiest.

but as lush and convenient as sabayon is, i still kinda want to move this process on, the reason i went with sabayon in the first place before i even found out it was the sweetest set up distro out of the box... it's gentoo underneath.

i'm not at all sure how easy it is to "roll your own" with sabayon and gentoo, having never yet even searched for the feature (since sabayon comes so conveniently configured out of the box, and gentoo you configure so completely and tightly to your needs).

for rolling my own, i'd be more confident with slitaz, slax, ubuntu or even (ew) suse studio, having done so at least once with each of these. i know pclinuxos bigs itself up as being another distro with an easy roll your own distro feature.

but for now... seems i'm having a more thorough poke and investigation of both sabayon and gentoo, having actually burned dvds of both sabayon 5 and gentoo 10.

it's 10.1 actually, but since its the same just with a couple bug fixes, and more so, since i wanted to finish that sentence of looking neat, i just left it as a nice round figure, to compliment the nice round 5 there. hehe. aaaaaanyways....

since i've had all those empty partitions sat eagerly waiting for some data or something to fill them up, it's about time i got out of the mere virtualbox and gave a distro a propper whirl natively for once.

yipes, just realised, thats the first time this year! all other times it's been either virtualbox or usb installs. oh how my distro surfing has changed.

so why a hd install if i'm dreaming up a distro setup for use on a usb stick on both laptop and desktop machines?
...
*shrug*
idk...
it'd b nice to have it on the hd here too?
this is an always-on kinda box, so i cant run both from the same usb pendrive at the same time, and there are plenty times when i need both on at the same time.
ok...
99% of the time it's probably an unecessary luxury...
but it is those 1% of times when it's needed that make it a necessity.

and thats kinda how i feel on having the os i use on my pendrive with my laptop be able to work with my workstation...
the rare times i've come across it, it's a real nuissance that the pendrive os i use on mylaptop wont work with my workstation. i think the triple monitor scares them, and they end up incompetently showing nothing. so this isnt just some missed luxury, this is missing even the most basic functionality.

so anyways... after my time with crunchbang, which has really opened my eyes to openbox, and revolutionized my thinking, and the cause for me returning to my xmonad configuration wanting to implement what i have learned... i'm now thinking it's time to spruce up my desktop again.

i know i do so much like having a "everything installed" environment to work in so there's rarely a tool missing that you'll need, but like i say, crunchbang has been a revolution in my mind.

so maybe i'll find i cant sluff off the need to have "everything installed", but i've certainly learned that most of my use is centered around a dozen or so apps.... handy that huh? leaves me enough room for window manager keyboard controls as well as start apps, and with minimal overlap and complex button combinations that get hard to remember... or so you would think.

to get all the buttons to fit is not the issue of course. it's to have them be intuitive, even for the stuff you might not need to use for ages.

f is a particularly troublesome key.

you say f and probably are thinking firefox? haha, foolish surely no? what about all the file management stuff? find? there are only a couple of all the potential modifier combinations left on my crunchbang for the f key. from the differing modifier key combinations, my mere f key can start up two file managers, a file manager in super user mode, two search engines, and a disk space usage analyser. f is definately not for firefox. as is default in openbox's default configuration in crunchbang, w is for web browser, and the web browser happens to be firefox.... however...

when setting this up for my xmonad configuration, i still have the default keys mapped for the window manager and as such, w is taken up for my screens 1, 2 and 3. w, e and r.

so... it's time to get really smart and come up with a merger of my xmonad and openbox keys, where each allows for the other.

since i'm going to be remapping loads of keys i may as well make it more artist friendly, rather than programmer friendly.

by that i mean, the keyboard shortcuts should nearly all be one handed friendly as the default position for the artist is one hand on the mouse/pen and one hand on the keyboard.

it does seem xmonad's keys are likely to get shunted off the main face entirely lest i come up with a strong system whereby there's a different modifier combination for application starting than there is for window manager... thus all apps could b started still using intuitive keys, more often using the first letter of the type of application (web, editor, etc), but this does cause some small constriction on the number of applications that can be started from the same key, even if there are no window management uses getting in the way.
however... this does overlook the one handed remapping and that xmonad's default keys are far from intuitive. a far more obvious system of window management is for the most part staring us in the face on the keyboard. windows, shift, -> for example could easily be the obvious choice for a first timers guess as to what might make the window move to the right... so thats what i'll make it. that gives an example of the type of intuitive control system i'm talking about. retaining some level of meaning to the key modifiers.... shift actually shifts things, control controls them, alt alternates or some alternate control, and the windows key is for modifying the window environment. simple huh?

well enough talk, more action...

Digit's first blog

2009-10-22T15:48:00.000-07:00

hi. i tend to forum it rather than blog it, but my rambling about linux is overspilling even forums about linux.

been using computers since my spectrum and nes as a child. also had a couple of really old somethings, with old green radiation gun monitors... yeah, that old.
then we had the family computer in 96, a 133mhz with 16mb ram, 1.3gb hd, n it was the tits in the day. even had a triple cd tray thing. it got upgraded a few times, and then i got my own in 98 or something, a 700mhz athlon with 256mb ram and a geforce1. kitted it out with a wacom graphics tablet shortly after, around the same time i added more hds and dual boot 98/2000. when everyone else was on xp, was moving back to 98... when everyone was still moving to xp, i was thinking the world had gone mad... in 2003 i started looking around for an alternative... i came across linux.. i came across gnu, i read up on loads, iespecially took to the philosophy, andi immediately reccognised it's worth to society, how it presented a real measurable boost. many eyes, shallow bugs, assurances on your software from community checking it out. good science. pace and bredth of progressing software, informed public, informed userbase, all users seamlessly can become developers, the software can be developed with maximal flow and allowance of evolving... all very lush idealism. when i first stepped in, i think i went with downloading a knoppix and suselinux9.1personal. maybe a couple others too. debian and something else. but when it came to it... after seeing my flatmate at the time's struggles with performance on his new high spec machine running xp, i upon the epic backup of all my stuff, i was going to dual boot, but just then felt the boot of windows' direction push me that little bit farther n i decided to go purely linux only. mmm. n it was goooood! yast was the most wonderful welcome to linux.... i've been keeping apprised of suse's direction, and i'm not impressed at all... not the pleasant wonder it once was. bloat creeps in and infests open source too it seems. so after getting off the suse linux train sometime around 10's arrival, i went a surfing. it was a furious blur of operating systems for a while... all the while keeping suse9.2 pro (which i bought with week's dole) as my primary backup admin os... a new machine comes along uhh... i forget when .... 2005... 2006? with windows(xp) tax on it, and then making its way through various states, i came across what was what i still consider my geatest discovery saikee's multi boot threads. http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=147959 & http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=143973

astonishing revelation lead me out of the realm of double boots and triple boots (which had been all i was searching for a the time), and my still new dual core 64 bit (which for ages i thought was dual processored and dual core... but its not, misleading wordage on bios and ebay seller who was long gone after getting possitive feedback. :p ) but its a beauty of a machine. it got a second monitor, and then eventually i had three monitors, two on it, and one on my old 700athlon (long since upgraded with more hds and grfx card etc). two pcs is a glory for when u want to distro surf, as is, i'm sure you can appreciate, having spent a solid week in serious study of the saikee-ness (and tbh, probably a month of refresher to be sure), having a well managed mulitboot grubbings, mmm. i think my most did peek into more than 20 distributions installed on one machine. and as i surfed and surfed, filled a stack of distros, it was a long time before suse9.2pro got knocked off from primary. sabayon crept in, and stayed a while when i was using studio ubuntu as my primary for art (which is after all what i mainly use the computer for), (i'll refrain from mentioning more distros or i'll be listing them off for a while).
so then what made sabayon do it? it as the first to come along to ever make double screen effortless, and included pretty much everything i needed out of the box, and had the drives applet in the pannel in gnome and kde, and had the help icon on the desktop leading to the sabayon help chat, and was setup up beautifully out of the box. sabayon 3.4 was anyway... i hear previous were too, buti didnt see them... 3.5 was .... ugly. they got prettier again, but stopped doing the "FULL" which i really liked them for. also... it was gentoo based. well configured, and gentoo based? i mean, gentoo, bless them, awesomest of metadistros, but their default out-of-the-box configuration is "middle of the pack" to put it mildly (and generously). so sabayon really really stood out of the pack, heads and shoulders above the established big names.
so while enjoying the lushness of sabayon and in true gentoo philosophy, not having my operating system (and it's nigglesome non-working aspects) getting in the way, i was free to go off and explore more about the software, more software, more tips, and so on. my time with sabayon has been among the most productive time i've had with an opperating system. not to say it wasnt completely without hiccoughpants. :D but that was all the better for the teaching. ;)
like i had been using my suse9.2pro for even while multibooting, i was then using my sabayon installation for virtualisation to facilitate distro surfing. virtualisation i feel has kinda dumbed me down... its almost too convenient! i set up loads of partitions for other distributions, and although i've already found a few worthy candidates, i still havnt used them.
so then a year or more ago, i got a tablet laptop, with windows(2005tabletedition) tax on it. it still has it on it. ugh... and i just realised, sorry to say, i am actually using it for writing this just now. got it set up looking probably almost identical to how i had my old 98 system setup... if i had the screenshots i'd be able to show how similar it really is.
so anyways, i'm only here after being badgered to play some games with windozers. i had a wubi ubuntu install setup on here for a while.. was set up gorgeous... if theres one thing i've learned after years of use, it's how to setup a nice desktop. (: .
);p
so these days after having done a little more distro surfing with my growing collection of usb pendrives, i now use crunchbang linux. it's gorgeous. a really pleasant painless experience, and no gnome or kde! thats right. a well configured openbox! lush. ubuntu based, so a hefty repository and a familiar pile o other stuff from ubuntu too... just no gnome (or kde)... all lighterweight. n it's sweet! as sweet a find as slitaz linux was.
and now... after having remastersys'd once or twice, made a couple of slax distros, a handful of slitaz distros, a couple of suse distros (nooo! boycott! what am i doing!?!!), and some other ventures in other directions.... i'm going to be getting to actually unleashing some of my creations to the public, and also starting up a couple projects welcoming true open source community contribution.
so anyways, i'll use this blog to ramble on about all the stuff and any of the stuff i like to ramble on about. it might not all be strictly linuxy, but it is here for the linuxy. :)