I would like to say thank you to the guys for allowing me on the podcast. I can now place a tick next to the item, "Appear on a podcast" on my list of things to do before I die :) Oh, and thanks also for using a picture of Daisy, an unexpected, but pleasant bonus — Daisy will no doubt grin from ear to ear when I show it to her :)

URL: http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/2008/05/07/s01e05-everybody-come-aboard/

Tags: podcast, ubuntu

URL: http://regex.larsolavtorvik.com/
Blog: Lars Olav Torvik - Programming and computer stuff.

Tags: php, programming, tools

What we need is something as slick as Launchpad, and thousands of instances thereof, which all peer with each other, automatically. The information would automatically be mirrored wherever it’s referenced, so the entire cloud would be highly-available and failure-proof.

I agree that this would be great, in theory, and I look forward to testing the system soon, not :) Seriously though, being a member of the Launchpad Beta Testers team and having used many of Launchpad's features, I am not sure that Martin's proposal is even remotely possible — is it possible to maintain a complex project such as Ubuntu without a centralised project management system?

Tags: launchpad, rants, ubuntu

Finally it has happened! The last 'official' release of Puppy was version 3.01, released October 15, 2007. Version 4.00 is happening 6 months later, which is an incredibly long time considering the previous frenetic schedule of releases. Anyway, here it is: the live-CD file is 'puppy-4.00-k2.6.21.7-seamonkey.iso' and is just 87.1MB. Download from http://puppylinux.com/download/.

Also from the release notes, and something that I am particularly pleased with:

GTK1 and Tcl/Tk abandoned. The decision was made to go for a totally GTK2-based system. This meant that there could be a consistent user-interface throughout and further reduced the size.

I am downloading the live-CD as I type. I will give the system a run tomorrow night, and if I get time, I will post with my initial thoughts/feedback.

Tags: linux, puppy, ubuntu

Dispose of the males. They don't have ovaries. Local laws may make it awkward for you to release animals from laboratory environments, so dump them into a bottle of ethanol. They'll probably die happy, to the extent that fruitflies can really be happy.

and…

Slowly move the tweezers apart. If you are lucky, the abdomen will split and you'll start pulling out internal organs. If you're unlucky, the head will come off.

Eew! :D

Tags: fun, gnome

1. I was unhappy with how WikkaWiki was formatting the underlying HTML, specifically the way in which it would never use the paragraph tag, opting instead to insert break tags. While this probably sounds like a minor issue, it was really beginning to bug me.

2. I started this site [crunchbang.org] with the intention of coding all of the software/scripts myself. Therefore, and somewhat obviously, my use of WikkaWiki was always going to provide reason for my conscience to niggle me.

3. As mentioned before, WikkaWiki is very hackable; however, it was never going to be as hackable as something I had produced myself.

4. I wanted both my blog and my wiki to use the Markdown markup language. While this was not a problem for my blog [it has always used Markdown] I could not find any suitable plugins/hacks for enabling Markdown within WikkaWiki.

The rewrite is pretty much complete and is now live. I have tried to make sure any URLs used by WikkaWiki are either reused or redirected. Please feel free to drop me a comment if you notice anything funky occurring.

Tags: php, programming, webdesign, whird

Regarding the new logo font, it is BastardusSans, one of Manfred Klein's many freely downloadable fonts. I really like Manfred Klein's fonts, not only because they are high quality and freely available, but because they are so diverse. Manfred Klein's portfolio features hundreds of decorative, historical, picture and text based fonts. If you are looking for a unique font for a new a project, do yourself a favour and go check out Manfred Klein's portfolio at TypOasis.

Back to the website redesign; as well as the visual changes mentioned above, I have also made changes to how the XHTML is formatted — just recently I seem to have been spending a lot of time browsing the web using Links; it was during one of these sessions when I noticed just how poorly my site was rendering in a text-based environment. I have now fixed this and my site should not only look better, but make more sense too :)

Other design alterations include:

• An updated print specific CSS file. Pages from my site should now print nicely [when printed from a modern browser.]

• A complete redesign of my personal wiki, the wiki design now matches that of my blog. I am still loving my Wikka Wakka Wiki installation, its hackability, speed and ease of use continue to impress. I did have a problem with spam comments last month, but it was easily fixed.

• A change to the font-family referenced in my site's CSS. Previously I had been specifying a range of sans-serif fonts, including but not limited to Arial and Verdana. I have changed this and the font used now is simply sans-serif. I am not sure how this change affects other systems, but IMHO, it makes for more readable copy on my Ubuntu Linux based systems.

• As mentioned at the top of this post, I have updated the one and only advert on my site. I have had one advertisement on my site since it started, it is a non-commercial advertisement for Ubuntu Linux. I have toyed with the idea of displaying Google Adsense, but I just cannot bring myself to do it, so instead I have updated my Ubuntu advert :) The image has been shamelessly ripped from the new Hardy Heron CD cover art. I have no idea who the three models are, or who photographed them, but I really like the image — there is something strangely appealing about this type of top-down photography. I am not sure of the legalities of ripping the image, but I am sure modifying it to be used as a webby advert will do no harm. See below for some resized versions:

Ubuntu Circle of Friends - 300 x 396 pixels

Ubuntu Circle of Friends - 200 x 246 pixels

Ubuntu Circle of Friends - 100 x 123 pixels

That pretty much covers my recent redesign efforts [although I have been tinkering for days and I am sure to have missed some minor details.] Finally, I have got some plans to include some new features on my site, namely a new bookmarking system and links to interesting posts and articles from my shared Google Reader feed. I will post more details about this as and when I get around to scripting the features in.

Tags: design, fonts, typography, ubuntu, webdesign

[16:05] <jono> the aim of Ubuntu Open Week is to produce a week of interesting and informative IRC sessions explaining how to get involved in the Ubuntu community

The line-up of sessions looks great. I am hoping to attend the following:

• Wed 30th Apr @ 16.00 UTC - Community Q+A - Jono Bacon
• Wed 30th Apr @ 19.00 UTC - Ubuntu Artwork - Ken Wimer
• Wed 30th Apr @ 21.00 UTC - Producing Podcasts in Ubuntu - Alan Pope
• Thu 1st May @ 16.00 UTC - Ubuntu on the Eee PC - Christer Edwards
• Thu 1st May @ 19.00 UTC - The Future of the Ubuntu Desktop - Ted Gould
• Fri 2nd May @ 16.00 UTC - Ask Mark - Mark Shuttleworth
• Fri 2nd May @ 17.00 UTC - Ask Mark - Mark Shuttleworth
• Sat 3rd May @ 17.00 UTC - Reporting Bugs - Brian Murray
• Sat 3rd May @ 19.00 UTC - LoCo Teams - Nick Ali
• Sat 3rd May @ 21.00 UTC - Improving OpenWeek/Feedback - Jorge Castro

Tags: ubuntu

Tags: ubuntu

I'll be moving the site to a cheaper service, one which offers a greater amount of monthly bandwidth. I know the service/uptime will not be as good as the current host, but for the difference in cost, I will not be complaining.

Anyhow, I just thought I would mention it as things may get a little screwy around here over the next few days. BTW, if you are reading this, you are connected to the new host :)

Tags: hosting

I have been running with the Hardy Beta releases for a couple of months, so the excitement at seeing all the new features has been slightly diluted; I may have to reinstall Gutsy for a day, and then perform an upgrade to get that "WOW!" factor. Either way, I just wanted to say congratulations to everyone involved in putting the Hardy release together, it rocks!

Also, there are many release parties happening tonight. I will not be attending any as I am working, boo! To those that will be partying, have a fantastic time! And sink a couple for me :)

Ubuntu 8.04 Release Notes: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/804
Download Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
Upgrade Information: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading

Tags: ubuntu

I had not previously come across rpl before, so I investigated. Turns out that rpl is a really handy text replacement tool — it makes recursive text replacement commands really simple; as simple as:

rpl [options] old_string new_string target_file(s)

Available options are:

--version          show program's version number and exit
-h, --help         show this help message and exit
-L, --license      show the software license
-x SUFFIX          specify file suffix to match
-i, --ignore-case  do a case insensitive match
-w, --whole-words  whole words (old_string matches on word boundaries only)
-b, --backup       make a backup before overwriting files
-q, --quiet        quiet mode
-v, --verbose      verbose mode
-s, --dry-run      simulation mode
-R, --recursive    recurse into subdirectories
-e, --escape       expand escapes in old_string and new_string
-p, --prompt       prompt before modifying each file
-f, --force        ignore errors when trying to preserve permissions
-d, --keep-times   keep the modification times on modified files
-t, --use-tmpdir   use $TMPDIR for storing temporary files
-a, --all          do not ignore files and directories starting with .

rpl is available to install from the Ubuntu repositories, install with the following command:

sudo apt-get install rpl

For more information about rpl, see: http://www.laffeycomputer.com/rpl.html

Tags: cli, commands, software, terminal, ubuntu, whird

Anyway, to get around this little problem, I have been creating new MySQL user accounts via the command line. It is a fairly straightforward procedure, but like a lot of administration tasks, it is not something I do on a daily basis. With this in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to record the process for future reference.

Follow the steps below to create a new user MySQL account. Note, these instructions assume that you have already set-up Apache, MySQL and PHP.

1. Open a terminal and login to MySQL as root:

mysql --user="root" --password="your_root_password"

2. Create a new user and password with the following command:

CREATE USER 'new_username'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password_for_new_username';

3. Assign privileges to the new user, enter the command:

GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'new_username'@'localhost';

4. Exit MySQL interface, enter:

exit

Notes: The above instructions will create a new user account on "localhost" and grant the user all privileges. While this is safe for my development environment, you would obviously want to grant only the necessary permissions in a production environment.

For more developer information, including the MySQL Reference Manual, visit: http://dev.mysql.com/

Tags: mysql, phpmyadmin, terminal, ubuntu

Why the neglect?

There are several reasons for my recent lack of commitment to Whird:

1. I have spent a large amount of time [probably too much] working on other projects; since the beginning of the year, CrunchBang Linux has consumed most of my free time.

2. Now that I have a working copy of Whird, I seem to have become far too comfortable simply using it, instead of developing it. Since starting this blog, in September last year, I have written 165 posts [not including this one.] Maybe I should have spent more time developing, instead of writing?! Hang on a minute, I am doing it again now. Doh!

3. Related to the last point; now that I have test driven Whird, I pretty much know what is wrong, what needs fixing and what works. Knowing this, I would ideally like to perform a complete rewrite. A daunting thought!

4. I have no self-imposed deadlines. This is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing, because it means any work I put into Whird remains a fun activity, something I can perform at my leisure. It is a curse, because I may not actually touch the project for months on end.

Will Whird ever be released?

Answer; maybe, probably, I hope so. Having said that, I would not hold your breath. It has occurred to me that Whird is in danger of becoming [if it hasn't done so already] "that" project, the project that provides endless hours of fun, without actually resulting in anything tangible.

Anyhow, that pretty much sums up the current status of Whird. Time to crack on and have a bit more fun :) In the meantime, if you are reading this and you are looking to start a new blog, why not try Steve Kemp's Chronicle. I have not actually tried it myself, but from what I have read, it looks like an interesting piece of software, something I could see myself using.

Tags: projects, whird

Personally, while feeling a little disappointed at not having had my moment, I also felt somewhat relieved. I think I had adequately prepared for the meeting, however, it will be good have a reprieve to work on strengthening my application. Becoming an Ubuntu member is a personal goal of mine, but it is not the be all and end all — making new friends, acquaintances and just being involved in this fantastic community is much more important :)

Regarding the new "Streamline Membership Approval", it can only be a good thing; as part of my preparation for yesterday's meeting I read numerous logs from previous Community Council meetings. Something that I noticed, while reading these logs, was the amount of time taken up by processing membership applications. I am sure that the Community Council members have more important things to discuss in the limited time they have available. Therefore, I, for one, am glad that the membership applications have been delegated; hopefully this will provide the Community Council more time to discuss the wider issues affecting the Ubuntu Community.

Tags: ubuntu

The current version of Xpad available from the Ubuntu Hardy repositories [2.13] suffers from a rather drastic 100% CPU bug; therefore, I have updated the package to the latest 2.14 release and uploaded it to the CrunchBang Linux repositories. I have also filed a small bug report on Launchpad and I am looking for a mentor to help me update the package; I understand it is a busy/hectic time for Ubuntu developers at the moment, so I will not hold my breath while I wait for a reply :)

Tags: crunchbanglinux, openbox, software, ubuntu

I have been running this release on my own systems for a number of weeks and it seems to be quite stable. Having said that, this release is based on a "development" release of Ubuntu and therefore is not recommended for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage.

What's new?

I am really quite happy with how CrunchBang Linux is developing. This release sees numerous improvements and when installed makes for a really usable, fast and attractive system. I would really like to thank the users on the forums for all their suggestions and feedback; I have implemented many improvements based solely on their input. See below for a list of changes.

Major updates:

• CrunchBang Linux is now based on Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron". This brings many new improvements and package updates; most notably an updated 2.6.24.15 Linux Kernel, and Xorg 7.3.
• Openbox 3.4.7-pre2, this release includes many improvements including the GDM control mentioned here.
• CrunchBang Linux repositories are now enabled by default. The repositories include CrunchBang Linux specific packages and fixes, plus Openbox related updates etc.
• A new default theme based on Clearlooks, "Darkness Returns". See the screenshots.

Other changes:

• Firefox 3 Beta 5 is now the default browser, replacing Epiphany.
• Claws Mail replaces Thunderbird as the default e-mail client.
• Mirage replaces EOG as the default image viewer.
• Easy enabling of compositing via xcompmgr and a new Openbox pipe menu.
• tablaunch application launch bar installed by default. Easy configuration via "Preferences" menu.
• Parcellite clipboard manager, replaces Glipper. Fixes this.
• Skype and Gizmo VoIP clients removed.
• Osmo PIM installed and linked to pypanel clock. Thanks to K.Mandla for the suggestion.
• pysdm "Storage Device Manager" added to "Tools & Utilities" menu.
• Xpad sticky notes added to "Tools & Utilities" menu.
• Gtk+ 2.0 Change Theme added to "Preferences" menu.
• Nitrogen GUI desktop background/wallpaper setter installed.
• Numerous other minor fixes and improvements.

Download

The CrunchBang Linux ISO image is approximately 614MB. It can be downloaded from the following locations:

• http://crunchbang.net/pub/linux/crunchbang-8.04.01.i386.iso
• http://www.dropshock.com/pub/crunchbang-linux/crunchbang-8.04.01.i386.iso - courtesy of Jason Liquorish
• http://stas.nerd.ro/pub/cbl/crunchbang-8.04.01.i386.iso - courtesy of Stas Sushkov

MD5: 90c83bac8ec4411fea422b439bfbcc65

Screenshots

Disclaimer

CrunchBang Linux is not recommended for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. CrunchBang Linux could possibly make your computer go CRUNCH! BANG! Therefore CrunchBang Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

Tags: crunchbanglinux, openbox, projects, ubuntu

It is a simple Bash script, but quite effective. Please feel free to modify/improve as you see fit.

#!/bin/bash
# Openbox Pipe Menu for xcompmgr
################################

# Set xcompmgr command options
EXEC='xcompmgr -c -t-5 -l-5 -r4.2 -o.55' #basic compositing
#EXEC='xcompmgr -cCfF -t-5 -l-5 -r4.2 -o.55 -D6' #more effects

# Toggle compositing. Call with "myxcompmgr --startstop"
if [ "$1" = "--startstop" ]; then 
    if [ ! "$(pidof xcompmgr)" ]; then
      $EXEC
    else
      killall xcompmgr
    fi
    exit 0
fi
# Output Openbox menu
if [ ! "$(pidof xcompmgr)" ]; then
    cat << _EOF_
    <openbox_pipe_menu>
        <item label="Enable Compositing">
            <action name="Execute">
                <execute>myxcompmgr --startstop</execute>
            </action>
        </item>
    </openbox_pipe_menu>
_EOF_
else
    cat << _EOF_
    <openbox_pipe_menu>
        <item label="Remove Transparency from Target Window">
            <action name="Execute">
                <execute>transset 1</execute>
            </action>
        </item>
        <item label="Set Target Window Transparency to 10%">
            <action name="Execute">
                <execute>transset .90</execute>
            </action>
        </item>
        <item label="Set Target Window Transparency to 20%">
            <action name="Execute">
                <execute>transset .80</execute>
            </action>
        </item>
        <item label="Set Target Window Transparency to 30%">
            <action name="Execute">
                <execute>transset .70</execute>
            </action>
        </item>
        <item label="Set Target Window Transparency to 40%">
            <action name="Execute">
                <execute>transset .60</execute>
            </action>
        </item>
        <item label="Set Target Window Transparency to 50%">
            <action name="Execute">
                <execute>transset .50</execute>
            </action>
        </item>
        <item label="Set Target Window Transparency to 60%">
            <action name="Execute">
                <execute>transset .40</execute>
            </action>
        </item>
        <item label="Set Target Window Transparency to 70%">
            <action name="Execute">
                <execute>transset .30</execute>
            </action>
        </item>
        <item label="Set Target Window Transparency to 80%">
            <action name="Execute">
                <execute>transset .20</execute>
            </action>
        </item>
        <item label="Set Target Window Transparency to 90%">
            <action name="Execute">
                <execute>transset .10</execute>
            </action>
        </item>
        <separator/>
        <item label="Disable Compositing">
            <action name="Execute">
                <execute>myxcompmgr --startstop</execute>
            </action>
        </item>
    </openbox_pipe_menu>
_EOF_
fi
exit 0

How to use the script

Follow the instructions below to install the script and set-up the Openbox pipe menu:

1. Open a terminal and download the script with the following command:

wget http://crunchbang.org/misc/myxcompmgr

2. Move the script to your "bin" directory and make executable:

mv myxcompmgr ~/bin/myxcompmgr && chmod +x ~/bin/myxcompmgr

3. Open your Openbox menu.xml file for editing:

gedit ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml

4. Insert the following code where you would like the menu to appear, save and exit:

<menu execute="myxcompmgr" id="CompositingPipeMenu" label="Compositing"/>

5. Issue the following command to update/reconfigure Openbox:

openbox --reconfigure

Optional: You could also place the following entry in ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh to start xcompmgr on boot:

# Enable Eyecandy, see ~/bin/myxcompmgr for more info
myxcompmgr --startstop &

Tags: bash, crunchbanglinux, openbox, ubuntu

I have updated my original post and wiki page to reflect tonight's changes. If you are currently using the repository, please update your APT sources. Apologies for any inconvenience/disruption this might cause. FWIW, this will definitely be the final location for the 7.10.xx repository; also, the move was necessary to accommodate a new 8.04.xx repository. More details on that soon.

Tags: crunchbanglinux

I have written the following PyGTK script to take advantage of the new GDM control. Python is not currently a language that I am too familiar with, so please feel free to rip the script to bits improve as you see fit.

#!/usr/bin/env python

import pygtk
pygtk.require('2.0')
import gtk
import os

class DoTheLogOut:

    # Cancel/exit
    def delete_event(self, widget, event, data=None):
        gtk.main_quit()
        return False

    # Logout
    def logout(self, widget):
        os.system("openbox --exit")

    # Reboot
    def reboot(self, widget):
        os.system("gdm-control --reboot && openbox --exit")

    # Shutdown
    def shutdown(self, widget):
        os.system("gdm-control --shutdown && openbox --exit")

    def __init__(self):
        # Create a new window
        self.window = gtk.Window(gtk.WINDOW_TOPLEVEL)
        self.window.set_title("Exit? Choose an option:")
        self.window.set_resizable(False)
        self.window.set_position(1)
        self.window.connect("delete_event", self.delete_event)
        self.window.set_border_width(20)

        # Create a box to pack widgets into
        self.box1 = gtk.HBox(False, 0)
        self.window.add(self.box1)

        # Create cancel button
        self.button1 = gtk.Button("Cancel")
        self.button1.set_border_width(10)
        self.button1.connect("clicked", self.delete_event, "Changed me mind :)")
        self.box1.pack_start(self.button1, True, True, 0)
        self.button1.show()

        # Create logout button
        self.button2 = gtk.Button("Log out")
        self.button2.set_border_width(10)
        self.button2.connect("clicked", self.logout)
        self.box1.pack_start(self.button2, True, True, 0)
        self.button2.show()

        # Create reboot button
        self.button3 = gtk.Button("Reboot")
        self.button3.set_border_width(10)
        self.button3.connect("clicked", self.reboot)
        self.box1.pack_start(self.button3, True, True, 0)
        self.button3.show()

        # Create shutdown button
        self.button4 = gtk.Button("Shutdown")
        self.button4.set_border_width(10)
        self.button4.connect("clicked", self.shutdown)
        self.box1.pack_start(self.button4, True, True, 0)
        self.button4.show()

        self.box1.show()
        self.window.show()

def main():
    gtk.main()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    gogogo = DoTheLogOut()
    main()

Tags: code, crunchbanglinux, openbox, python