Easily Distracted

In GNOMEe 2.24, hamster-applet will be included by default. When I use it, I love it. I should use it more often.

I should note that “laundry” is actually inclusive to other room-cleaning activities.

I haven’t looked at the plugin for a while, but I’ve been meaning to reproduce my “todo” list for it that I wrote on the rb-dev list a while back.

• the gconf keys in gconf-editor say they have no schema. The main plugins’ keys have a schema and don’t give a warning. Definitely not serious, though.
• it currently adds/removes the ui string when the options are toggled in the configure dialog. I have a feeling it might be better to only add/remove them in the activation/deactivation, and just hide/show here. Maybe faster?
• it currently hides the browser button in small display mode. That has nothing to do with the jump-to-playing button. That should be in core, if it was decided that was the desired behaviour.
• to hide the buttons in the small display, it checks the value at activation, and it connects to the View menu’s toggleButton’s “toggled” signal. So whenever it’s toggled, the gconf value for the small display mode is checked, but I think there’s a delay sometimes. Pushing Ctrl D quickly a few times may result in incorrect UI presented. I remember deciding that this is due to a delay set on the gconf callback to overcome some other bug….
• in the context menus, ‘Properties’ should really be the last item. They need a placeholder put in the UI core. UPDATE: I’ve filed a bug with a patch attached here. Jump-to-Playing and other plugins will need to be updated when the patch is applied. I’ve just done it on my local copy w/Rhythmbox HEAD…. Looks like this:
  

  Before (red) and After (green) applying the patch and using an updated plugin

• Show the context menu item in PodcastView and PlaylistView popups, as well. I’ve added this in my local copy, already. Maybe I should just bump the version and release….

Ubuntu Hardy Heron is out! [ Features | Download ]

If I disappear for a while, something probably didn’t go smoothly. I almost expect a problem with my wireless drivers… :/

*click*

Update: As I anticipated, my desktop had (and is still having) some troubles with the wireless. I’m currently able to connect to the Internet… but barely. I have an RaLink 2500 PCI card. For the previous version of Ubuntu (Gutsy) I was using the CVS version of this driver, because the one included in Gutsy was broken. This driver is being combined with a few other drivers and being rewritten as a unified driver, the rt2x00 driver. The good news is that this unified driver have been included in the kernel and they’re actively developed. The bad news is that (for me) they barely function. I tried using the windows driver through ndiswrapper, but that didn’t seem to work. I tried compiling the old CVS drivers again, and they don’t seem to work any more. So I’m back to the included driver in Hardy that limps along….

On the laptop side of things, everything went peachy… until I decided to try the binary NVIDIA drivers again (to play with 3D things). That was utter fail, and I remembered why I disabled them. But then.. my sound stopped working….? huh?

Temptation to do a fresh install rising.

Update 2: I’m not going to hold my breath on my desktop’s connection, but it seems to be doing better. Also, I solved the sound problem on my laptop. And I set up my tablet. Whoo!

I’ve updated the Jump-to-Playing plugin for Rhythmbox. The latest version is now 0.2, and it’s a large improvement. Many thanks to Dan Mihai Ile for his work on the configure dialog and the gconf functionality! I’ve been really busy recently, and without his efforts, I wouldn’t have gotten around to working on this.

Screenshots

Changes Since 0.1

• Added preferences dialog based on work from Dan Mihai Ile, allowing either the toolbar button or the context menu item to be displayed.
• Modifed the UI of the preferences dialog (HIG compliance).
• Made the preferences dialog act immediately (HIG compliance).
• Toolbar Jump-to-Playing button hides in small display mode.
• Browser button also hides in small display mode. This should probably be moved into a different plugin, or the core. But I’ve left it here, for now.
• Included QueuePlaylistView’s context menu in addition to the Browser Source popup.
  Moved UI XML into strings within __init__.py.
• Added GPL license to files.
• Updated plugin description.
• Checks if small display is active on activation.

Download

jump-to-playing-0.2.tar.gz (Update: Newer version is available.)

Installation

1. Extract the jump-to-playing folder into your ~/.gnome2/rhythmbox/plugins/ directory. Completely replace any previous versions.
2. (Re)Start Rhythmbox and enable the plugin in Edit : Plugins.

Todo

• Force “Properties” to bottom of browser context menu (may depend on placeholder being added to the context menu)
• Add Configure dialog with checkboxes for toolbar and browser context menu, defaulting to toolbar only (both is a little redundant). Currently, both are added automatically.
  [x] Add button to toolbar
  [_]Add link to browser context menu
• Hide toolbar button in Small Display mode.

The code could definitely be better and there’s still room for features/general improvements. All patches and code-clean-up are welcome!

This plugin will display the View : Jump to Playing Song link as a button in the toolbar and as link in the Browser’s context menu. This is about as simple as a plugin could be (which is partly why I wrote it), but I’ve actually found it quite useful. Maybe you will too.

Download

jump-to-playing-0.1.tar.gz (Update: Newer version is available.)

Installation

1. Extract the jump-to-playing folder into your ~/.gnome2/rhythmbox/plugins/ directory.
2. (Re)Start Rhythmbox and enable the plugin in Edit : Plugins.

Todo

• Add Configure dialog with checkboxes for toolbar and browser context menu, defaulting to toolbar only (both is a little redundant). Currently, both are added automatically.
  [x] Add button to toolbar
  [_]Add link to browser context menu
• Force “Properties” to bottom of browser context menu (may depend on placeholder being added to the context menu)
• Hide toolbar button in Small Display mode.

I’ve removed a lot of the noise from the theme. This includes all of the gradients and many of those nasty, sharp lines. Put Categories and Time at the top of each post, with Tags and Comments at the bottom. Made both smaller. Put everything on search results page. Added links to Technorati and del.icio.us from Tags and Categories pages. Changed the gradient images for header and footer (reminds me of rust).

Screenshots of some of the changes:

Original and loud:

Removed gradients:

Added solids:

Changed colours:

Some more touch-ups:

What you should be seeing now:

Comments / suggestions?