Easily Distracted

If you’re like me, you like receiving an email telling you should log into facebook to check your messages or something. But those emails accumulate and obstruct the rest of your inbox!! I tried searching for facebook but that returned a bunch of legitimate emails and chats that mentioned facebook, and that I did not want to delete. Then I tried the following term:

from=facebook

Genius. Thanks, Google. Go through and make sure all the emails aren’t important, then click Select: All, and click Delete. Repeat until you’re happy you’ve removed all the pointless emails. From now on, delete the notifications when you’re done with them! For more information on gmail search keys and syntax, go to the Gmail Help Centre > Searching Mail > Advanced Search. This can all be accessed using the “Help” link located in the top-right of your gmail screen.

This should be easier in a dedicated client, of course, like Mozilla Thunderbird or something: just sort by sender. Speaking of Thunderbird, looks like Mozilla won’t be supporting it anymore. Certainly not as substantially, anyways. I currently use a combination of Thunderbird and Gmail.

I laughed at this comment, by “Kurt”:

Want a new vision of mail? I got one for you:
After 8 long years start adding a f*cking scroll bar to the header view! https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9942

Amen, brother. Amen. I imagine nearly every user has had their email content obstructed by a massive header at some point.

Did a bit of IRC channel ping-pong today. Went over to #f-spot to ask a user-related question about f-spot, and got pulled in by curiosity on a totally unrelated topic: opening a folder with the default file-manager. Initiated some discussion on #mono and discovered this was, in fact, not trivial – which seemed odd. But I’ve never personally written any C#, or much desktop code at all, for that matter. So I started playing around with various suggestions from the good folks in #mono, and writing my very first C# application.

(Yeah, basically a one-liner. You gotta start somewhere! ^_^) Anyway, for something so simple, there seemed to be a lot of uncertainty and discussion about it (even from the man, himself! – He claims his memory is fading…), so I figure it’s worth documenting. More info can be seen here under Process.

On FreeDesktop systems it will use xdg-open, if not, it will try to use gnome-open or kfmclient to open the files.

Not sure if this will work on Windows. The file:// prefix is required.

Update: According to ccoish, this will work on Windows.

Passing this info back to #f-spot resulted in a patch to allow you to open the folder containing your photo. Thanks, Gabriel! Open source is cool.

Not sure if I’ll look at C#/Mono much more, was kinda gonna do the Python thing for a while… but this was a fun distraction.

UFO2000

So for the last month or so… some friends (one, in particular) have been nagging me to get UFO 2000 to work. If you’re not familiar with XCOM: UFO Defence or XCOM: Terror From the Deep, they’re really awesome turn-based strategy/simulation games originally released by Microprose in 1993, for the PC. My friends and I would huddle around a 15″ CRT and play hotseat with this single-player game by naming and customizing our squad. We would control our own dudes, watch them improve and get better equipment, then plead for the game to be loaded when a favourite takes one for the team. (That got ridiculous, and we eventually had to agree that we would do no loading of saved games for that purpose.) Anyway, UFO 2000 is an open source project based on X-COM, and currently (only) supports 2 player multiplayer. Each player builds a squad according to set rules and money allowed, then places their their team on a randomly generated map, and go at it, exploratory style. The UI is atrocious, and unless you’re running Windows or Gentoo the setup might be a pain, but the game’s pretty awesome.

I documented the steps I went through to get it working on Ubuntu Feisty in the site’s forums here. However, I wasn’t able to see my friend on the server, so I still haven’t been able to play! :’(

Point and Click Adventures

If you’re into dry sarcastic humour and point-and-click adventure games, you might want to check out these (also 100% free!):

• Spooks
• King’s Quest 3 VGA! Remake

I tried using WINE to run them, but the performance wasn’t acceptable, and there was no sound. Damn. Even so, I played the first bit of Spooks and it seems well written. I’ve played King’s Quest before and they’re pretty fun. Space Quest was my favourite Sierra Adventure game, though….

Some videos

I found these videos entertainingly simple and accurate:

• procrastination
• how to break up
• making contact
• Lev, the author
• his website

Website

I did take a quick look at a modified kubrick theme I had been working on a while back. One of the main changes is the menu on the right, and when I looked at what I had done in IE… wow, do I have some work to do! hah. Wait, that’s not funny….

Rhythmbox is becoming more awesome

The new version of Rhythmbox included in Feisty, version 0.10.0, is very nice! I’m totally impressed with the enhancements since the last version I was using.

Jamendo integration: it will download the catalogue of artists and songs on Jamendo, and you can browse or play it just as if it was all on your computer, with the regular interface. If you like something, there’s a handy “Download Album” button. Music by donation. Awesome. Kinda like open-source for music.

Last.fm integration: I can now play my neighbour radio within Rhythmbox! Oh joy of joys! Seriously, that’s awesome. The last-exit client is still cool, but I think I’ll be using this most of the time now.

Magnatune integration: Just like Jamendo, except downloading an album requires purchase.

Here’s some screenshots of Rhythmbox:

Feisty and Wacom

Still not there. I’ve been waiting and waiting for the day I can plug in my tablet when I need it and start using it, without having to restart the X server. Apparently, however, that day is not far off.

From https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wacom:

With the version of the Linux Wacom driver (0.7.2) in Ubuntu 6.06, 6.10 and 7.04, if you unplug you tablet, it won’t function when you plug it back in and you will have to restart X. For this reason, it is best to leave the tablet plugged in. This limitation will be removed when the 0.7.4 version of the driver is included in Ubuntu.

I can’t wait for that.

Some very cool stuff in the wonderful world of software(tm):

• Flash 9 beta for Linux (finally!)
  OMG OMG OMG – so much better.  faster.  no (or way fewer) sound issues.  GTK standalone player available, as well.  Now I don’t have to cringe when I receive a link to “that really cool flash site.”
• Gaim 2.0 beta 4 multi-protocol IM client (cross-platform)
  Vast improvements.  File transfers on MSN still teh suck, tho.  And, of course, it doesn’t support the anything complicated.  Now I will use aMSN for complicated features, and Gaim for minimal chattiness.  Like when I’m supposed to be doing homework.  ….  Like now. 
• Songbird 0.2 webby music player/manager (cross-platform)
  If you’re still of the 1) Find music file in filesystem 2) double click to play in audio player mindset, please come to the current generation.  You need a library manager.  You do.  This is based on Firefox XUL and it’s pretty slick.  It’s even quite snappy!  It browses the web, collects media files from web pages…. oh just click the link and watch a video about it.

Note: Posted in Deepest Sender. Which seems to prefer ‘BR’ tags over ‘P’ tags.  Eewww….

Vancouver Python Workshop

Had a good (and very geeky) time. Met some cool people (including a local Summer-of-Coder)! Sweet. I was almost always in the “Beginner Track,” as I was completely unfamiliar with the language. Paul Prescod did an excellent job of offering a two-day introduction to the Python language, and Jim O’Leary had a great 45 minutes on object orientation. (I’ve never before seen anyone try to cover polymorphism in 5 minutes.) I wish most of it moved at a faster pace, but I understand that there was a large range of skills and backgrounds in the room. All the slides are supposed to be available soon through the website, for anyone interested.

Guido giving his keynote.

The reception at Steamworks.

BBQ @ Locarno Beach

I decided to walk along the beach on my way home. Glad I did.

Python’s really cool. I can see myself using it quite a bit. I even got a really cool idea for a project while going for a run, the other day! We’ll see how that comes.

Adopting Pets

Over the last several months, I’ve adopted a catch and release program whenever I find a spider in the house. I put it in a container and release it at the bottom of the driveway when I get a chance. Well, I do find these creatures quite interesting, and I found a rather large jumping spider[1] on the deck, which I found especially interesting! I’ve been reluctant to release him, cuz he’s so cool! The problem? Well, I have to feed him, of course. So far, he’s eaten a pill bug I found for him, and two other (smaller) spiders that I didn’t really intend as food….

Actually, I took the container outside with me , looking for “spider food.” At this point, it contained an ant, the large jumping spider, and a smaller spindly spider. For purposes of brevity, lets refer to the jumping spider as “BJ,” and the little spider as “Petey.” I released the ant because he was able to fit through one of the holes at the top (the spiders didn’t seem interested in him), so I just flicked him away. But when the spiders saw him crawl through a hole, they got really excited! I’m not sure if they saw it as food escaping or verification that it was possible. Both BJ and Petey crawled up to the top of the container and started feeling around.

For a couple of days, these spiders had been living together with no conflict, but when excited little Petey got too close to BJ, BJ lashed out at Petey. So Petey scuttled off, wounded, and now *really* wanting to get out. BJ just sat there watching… and waiting, I guess. Petey tried to squeeze through one of the holes, and managed to get two legs and half his body through. He pulled up and tried another one. All the holes are the same size, so he made about the same progress: 2 legs and half his body. BJ leaped on Petey’s helplessly stuck self, and that was the end of poor ‘lil Petey, his legs twitching. I felt pretty sad for the little guy, I was actually planning on releasing him right after the ant.

Anyways, I took lots of pictures of BJ and he’s been quite entertaining. I released him, today.

“Freedom! I can almost feel it with my spindly little legs!”

“RaaaaaaR! Harharhaha… Gotcha!”
“NOOooooo!”

*munch munch munch*

MMmmmm, Food

I cooked salmon, last night. It was very good, if I do say so, myself. Jesse declined the invite, but Kurtis was willing to come over for a late dinner.

Thawed and ready to filet. I still have trouble removing all the bone.

Lemon juice and garlic put on filets. Carrots placed around them.

Mayonnaise + spices on one filet, Dijon mustard + different spices on the other.

Throw chopped red pepper (which I LOVE) and onion on both. Wrap up in tinfoil, BBQ on high for 10-15 minutes, and it’s done.

Enjoy!

Some Link Spewage

• Synergy is a very nice way to use one keyboard and mouse to control multiple desktops, over the network. I just started using it for my desktop & laptop.
• Last.fm is fantastic. Join it. Add me as friend. I’m friendly. izm99

  http://www.last.fm

• If you use Linux, I recommend last-exit as a player. (Of course, I may be toolkit-biased).

  

• Excellent talk on how Google is getting people to want to work for them. for free.
• Vancouver coffee shops that offer free wireless (with reviews!). Been told these weren’t terribly reliable, however.
  http://vancouver.wifimug.org
• The Fireworks are over. I didn’t go.
• This looks interesting.
  http://structuredblogging.org/
• Google Browser Sync
• Cheap domain names (according to a VanLUG newsgroup discussion):
  www.domainsatcoast.ca
  NetFirms