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What kind of a night it is
Oct. 7th, 2016 03:25 am$ vlc --file-logging fuckvlc.txt cdda:///dev/sr0
# it won this round: no such logfile existed, and it refused to create one for me.
# it won this round: no such logfile existed, and it refused to create one for me.
I would just like to thank the text editor bluefish.
Sequence of events:
1. Open a bunch of tabs in bluefish, each containing a wip.
2. Consider whether two of said wips might actually be part of one longer wip. I do what I sometimes do in this situation, and copy all the text from one of those tabs to a new tab so I can play around with it. (The sensible thing to do here would have been to immediately save this as nameofwip.v2.txt, so I could keep ctrl-Sing it as I went.)
3. 480 words of bridging text happen. I don't know if said words will actually fit with either wip, but there's something I like in there.
4. I need to check something in canon. Try opening fbreader, which I have not yet gotten to work in Arch, why. It doesn't open.
4a. Reflect on how the name "fbreader" keeps making me think of catbreading.
5. Ask the package manager if fbreader is installed, since, um, the system doesn't seem to recognise the command. It assures me that it is installed.
6. Run a system upgrade, on general principle, before troubleshooting further. For the first time ever, pacman (yes, Arch's package management application is called pacman. They think they're clever.) reports a dependency conflict. It's between two versions of Qt. I answer yes to its default solution. I flip back to the story while it's working.
7. X crashes. I am in a single terminal with a running process I don't recognise with an error message I can't solve. I try various keyboard shortcuts before falling back on the three finger salute. The computer restarts.
8. To my great relief, the system boots happily. I open bluefish. It automatically recovers and loads the unsaved text document I was working on. All of it. I save it, locally and in the cloud. THANK YOU BLUEFISH.
Sequence of events:
1. Open a bunch of tabs in bluefish, each containing a wip.
2. Consider whether two of said wips might actually be part of one longer wip. I do what I sometimes do in this situation, and copy all the text from one of those tabs to a new tab so I can play around with it. (The sensible thing to do here would have been to immediately save this as nameofwip.v2.txt, so I could keep ctrl-Sing it as I went.)
3. 480 words of bridging text happen. I don't know if said words will actually fit with either wip, but there's something I like in there.
4. I need to check something in canon. Try opening fbreader, which I have not yet gotten to work in Arch, why. It doesn't open.
4a. Reflect on how the name "fbreader" keeps making me think of catbreading.
5. Ask the package manager if fbreader is installed, since, um, the system doesn't seem to recognise the command. It assures me that it is installed.
6. Run a system upgrade, on general principle, before troubleshooting further. For the first time ever, pacman (yes, Arch's package management application is called pacman. They think they're clever.) reports a dependency conflict. It's between two versions of Qt. I answer yes to its default solution. I flip back to the story while it's working.
7. X crashes. I am in a single terminal with a running process I don't recognise with an error message I can't solve. I try various keyboard shortcuts before falling back on the three finger salute. The computer restarts.
8. To my great relief, the system boots happily. I open bluefish. It automatically recovers and loads the unsaved text document I was working on. All of it. I save it, locally and in the cloud. THANK YOU BLUEFISH.
Tonight's non-sleep activities
Aug. 4th, 2016 06:28 amMade a couple of small but very happy-making changes to my system.
I got around to setting up redshift so my eyes don't hurt any more. I had not realised my eyes were hurting -- my reason for installing it was that all that bright light late at night isn't good for my sleep schedule. But apparently it was also hurting my eyes -- I started the app and both eyeballs sighed in relief. I asked i3 to start it for me every session.
And then I added a background image to GRUB. No reason except that it's my computer, so if I want the menu where I choose what operating system to boot into to have the Death Star in the background, I can do that. I am ridiculously pleased with the result. I have altered the boot manager settings. Pray I don't alter them further.
I got around to setting up redshift so my eyes don't hurt any more. I had not realised my eyes were hurting -- my reason for installing it was that all that bright light late at night isn't good for my sleep schedule. But apparently it was also hurting my eyes -- I started the app and both eyeballs sighed in relief. I asked i3 to start it for me every session.
And then I added a background image to GRUB. No reason except that it's my computer, so if I want the menu where I choose what operating system to boot into to have the Death Star in the background, I can do that. I am ridiculously pleased with the result. I have altered the boot manager settings. Pray I don't alter them further.
An annoying thing
Jul. 28th, 2016 01:22 amI do not like Firefox's default start page.
In Firefox, in accordance with my settings:
- when I open a new tab I get a blank page, and for most use cases I open a new tab, not a new window.
- when I start Firefox I get my previous windows and tabs.
However:
- sometimes I need to open a new window. When that happens, Firefox shows me its fucking default start page. And so far I haven't been able to find the setting to tell it to give me a blank page instead. I could just change the homepage to something else, but I want a blank page. I want not to have my executive function stymied by "there is a thing there! Thing is not what I expected to see! What do?"
Annoying.
Edit: I set my homepage to "about:newtab". This worked. /o\
In Firefox, in accordance with my settings:
- when I open a new tab I get a blank page, and for most use cases I open a new tab, not a new window.
- when I start Firefox I get my previous windows and tabs.
However:
- sometimes I need to open a new window. When that happens, Firefox shows me its fucking default start page. And so far I haven't been able to find the setting to tell it to give me a blank page instead. I could just change the homepage to something else, but I want a blank page. I want not to have my executive function stymied by "there is a thing there! Thing is not what I expected to see! What do?"
Annoying.
Edit: I set my homepage to "about:newtab". This worked. /o\
Computer update
May. 27th, 2016 03:56 pmYesterday I told myself (rather angrily) that if I couldn't get Windows 7 to work on the new computer that day, I'd go buy Windows 10 and use that.
I reneged, because I ended up being too tired and upset to try my one more thing I had left to try (go buy a 16GB drive and see if the reason the ASRock patcher isn't working is that I was using a smaller USB drive than they told me to (they said "more than 8GB" and it's an 8GB drive, so... it's worth a try.))
Today I'm fresher, have bought the larger drive, and found two more things to try:
a) run the app not only in administrator mode, but also in Vista SP2 compatibility mode (also seen in that thread: when ASRock released that app, originally they released it LOCKED TO ASROCK MOTHERBOARDS. So if you couldn't get Windows 7 to work on your new computer with the ASRock motherboard, you couldn't install their patch if your old computer did not have an ASRock motherboard. That's... even stupider than the Coolermaster's power on button thing. They claim to have unlocked it.)
b) if that doesn't work, try slipstreaming the drivers into the .iso myself. By hand.
Or, in other words:
a) paint a trompe-l'oeil picture of myself swimming in the ocean and hope the sharks chase that instead of me, or
b) learn to ride the sharks back to shore
I love computers.
I reneged, because I ended up being too tired and upset to try my one more thing I had left to try (go buy a 16GB drive and see if the reason the ASRock patcher isn't working is that I was using a smaller USB drive than they told me to (they said "more than 8GB" and it's an 8GB drive, so... it's worth a try.))
Today I'm fresher, have bought the larger drive, and found two more things to try:
a) run the app not only in administrator mode, but also in Vista SP2 compatibility mode (also seen in that thread: when ASRock released that app, originally they released it LOCKED TO ASROCK MOTHERBOARDS. So if you couldn't get Windows 7 to work on your new computer with the ASRock motherboard, you couldn't install their patch if your old computer did not have an ASRock motherboard. That's... even stupider than the Coolermaster's power on button thing. They claim to have unlocked it.)
b) if that doesn't work, try slipstreaming the drivers into the .iso myself. By hand.
Or, in other words:
a) paint a trompe-l'oeil picture of myself swimming in the ocean and hope the sharks chase that instead of me, or
b) learn to ride the sharks back to shore
I love computers.
Brushes the GNU Image Manipulation Project comes with by default: a green capsicum (aka bell pepper) stamp
Brushes the GNU Image Manipulation Project does not come with by default: a 1px by 1px brush.
I guess I can use a green capsicum to tick that box I forgot to tick in that paper document I already photographed and uploaded and am now cleaning up so I can upload, right?
Brushes the GNU Image Manipulation Project does not come with by default: a 1px by 1px brush.
I guess I can use a green capsicum to tick that box I forgot to tick in that paper document I already photographed and uploaded and am now cleaning up so I can upload, right?
Doyle vs Watson
Jul. 31st, 2011 11:34 pmWhat does my head in when I read certain kinds of fanfic is not so much the implausibility of what the writer has written, as my brain's attempts to make it make sense.
"Don't be mad, but I took your laptop to Chris and Dustin, who ran a pretty intense virus scan. Apparently your laptop had an almost undetectable wormhole virus that made it so when you tried to send an email to a specific address, they just dropped out into nothing..."
(From here.)
Okay. I will buy that Sean Parker is capable of writing a fairly nasty virus. For the purposes of this story, I will buy that he would want to. With difficulty, but characterisation is not my main concern here.
What I'm having trouble with here is the logistics. How would Parker write a virus that would do that? Stipulating that it has to attack his laptop, not the remote mail server, and that it should be undetectable to the user, and that the user is someone who thinks anyone who doesn't understand all the settings on all the software they use every day even when they change without notice is 'stupid'.
It's actually a very interesting problem, and one I don't have the computer skills to answer, so I'm turning it over to you, oh flist/circle.
"Don't be mad, but I took your laptop to Chris and Dustin, who ran a pretty intense virus scan. Apparently your laptop had an almost undetectable wormhole virus that made it so when you tried to send an email to a specific address, they just dropped out into nothing..."
(From here.)
Okay. I will buy that Sean Parker is capable of writing a fairly nasty virus. For the purposes of this story, I will buy that he would want to. With difficulty, but characterisation is not my main concern here.
What I'm having trouble with here is the logistics. How would Parker write a virus that would do that? Stipulating that it has to attack his laptop, not the remote mail server, and that it should be undetectable to the user, and that the user is someone who thinks anyone who doesn't understand all the settings on all the software they use every day even when they change without notice is 'stupid'.
It's actually a very interesting problem, and one I don't have the computer skills to answer, so I'm turning it over to you, oh flist/circle.
Distract me!
Jul. 8th, 2011 06:12 pmI am upgrading Ubuntu on the new netbook, and there are all these stupid errors where it can't install a package because the package is already installed, and each time it happens, the whole dist-upgrade stops for you to click OK, even if you're doing something else and can't see that it's waiting for you. But sitting there waiting for it to come to a halt isn't practical either, since the upgrade takes like five hours.
Accordingly, a meme! Stolen from a bunch of people on my reading list:
Give me a character's name and I will tell you three reasons why it would be terrible to try to date them, have sex with them, or be in a long-term relationship with them.
For an extra challenge, pick characters you know I'm fond of. Anyone can tell you reasons not to date Cthulhu, after all.
Accordingly, a meme! Stolen from a bunch of people on my reading list:
Give me a character's name and I will tell you three reasons why it would be terrible to try to date them, have sex with them, or be in a long-term relationship with them.
For an extra challenge, pick characters you know I'm fond of. Anyone can tell you reasons not to date Cthulhu, after all.
I don't think so
Mar. 24th, 2010 02:19 amOn upgrading the hard drive of the EeePC 900A
I guess it's time I looked into portable apps, and moved everything I can to my USB stick.
In other news, who knew you can't insert cells into a range of merged cells in Open Office?
I guess it's time I looked into portable apps, and moved everything I can to my USB stick.
In other news, who knew you can't insert cells into a range of merged cells in Open Office?
Does this exist?
Mar. 13th, 2010 01:29 amI'm looking for an application that I've never heard of, but maybe someone else has?
You know how some .cbr readers let you change the page orientation from portrait to landscape, so if you're using a laptop or netbook, you can turn it on its end and read it like a real book, and press a key to go to the next page?
I'd like something like that, but for plain text and/or HTML. So I can read ebooks lying in bed, and not have to scroll as often.
Anyone?
You know how some .cbr readers let you change the page orientation from portrait to landscape, so if you're using a laptop or netbook, you can turn it on its end and read it like a real book, and press a key to go to the next page?
I'd like something like that, but for plain text and/or HTML. So I can read ebooks lying in bed, and not have to scroll as often.
Anyone?
I confess, I teared up a little
Dec. 27th, 2009 02:24 pmFive-year-olds installing Ubuntu and seven-year-olds building computers
I think it might be time for an Aunty and Niece bonding session involving screwdrivers and computer parts.
I think it might be time for an Aunty and Niece bonding session involving screwdrivers and computer parts.
I do not like change
Oct. 11th, 2009 10:28 pmIt has finally dawned on me (yeah, took its time) that when I get my new computer (I'm planning to get it piece by piece over the next year, as funds permit) I'll have to make the jump from 32-bit to 64-bit architecture.
I'm scared. What if the drivers don't work? Reassure me, please.
It will be nice to have more RAM than I ever dreamed of, though, and more processor than I'll know what to do with.
Hardware question: anybody know whether it's OK to put DDR-333 RAM in a machine that formerly took DDR-200 or 266? I mean, I know it won't work to spec, but will it work at all? I ask because RAM's the cheapest thing I can buy, so it'll probably be the first piece of the new computer, and while I'm waiting to put the RAM in the new computer, it'd be nice to use it to give my old computer a little RAM upgrade. (Old computer is currently running on 512MB, so yeah, anything I could put in would be an improvement.)
About OSes: I'm planning to do a multi-boot environment, with Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Ubuntu (or Xubuntu - I haven't decided), Debian (with KDE, for variety), and Windows 7. Or maybe quintuple-boot and install one partition with OSx86-64. My goal is to get as much experience using different OSes as possible. (I still need to get out the old computer A gave me and use it to play around with FreeBSD and OpenSolaris.) I'll mostly use Ubuntu (or Xubuntu).
I'm scared. What if the drivers don't work? Reassure me, please.
It will be nice to have more RAM than I ever dreamed of, though, and more processor than I'll know what to do with.
Hardware question: anybody know whether it's OK to put DDR-333 RAM in a machine that formerly took DDR-200 or 266? I mean, I know it won't work to spec, but will it work at all? I ask because RAM's the cheapest thing I can buy, so it'll probably be the first piece of the new computer, and while I'm waiting to put the RAM in the new computer, it'd be nice to use it to give my old computer a little RAM upgrade. (Old computer is currently running on 512MB, so yeah, anything I could put in would be an improvement.)
About OSes: I'm planning to do a multi-boot environment, with Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Ubuntu (or Xubuntu - I haven't decided), Debian (with KDE, for variety), and Windows 7. Or maybe quintuple-boot and install one partition with OSx86-64. My goal is to get as much experience using different OSes as possible. (I still need to get out the old computer A gave me and use it to play around with FreeBSD and OpenSolaris.) I'll mostly use Ubuntu (or Xubuntu).
Computer question
Aug. 8th, 2009 10:25 pmSo, for complicated memory-management reasons, and after rebooting failed, I had to turn my computer off at the wall. When I turned it back on, the xfce panel was invisible, and the cursor disappeared behind where it should have been. I could middle-click but not right-click. Middle-clicking gave me the option of opening a terminal window, which was apparently already open but minimised. I used my other computer to google, and found that I could get the panel up again by running xfce-panel. So far so good.
Here's the thing: the command xfce-panel doesn't seem to be running in the background, and if I close the terminal tab it's running in, it crashes again. I tried putting & on the end of the command, and that didn't help. And every time it crashes, it takes Firefox with it. Do I just have to keep that terminal window open forever? Why is this happening?
Edited to add: thanks for the help. I did a system update and restarted, and after that it was fine.
Here's the thing: the command xfce-panel doesn't seem to be running in the background, and if I close the terminal tab it's running in, it crashes again. I tried putting & on the end of the command, and that didn't help. And every time it crashes, it takes Firefox with it. Do I just have to keep that terminal window open forever? Why is this happening?
Edited to add: thanks for the help. I did a system update and restarted, and after that it was fine.
Yesterday, Nethack started segfaulting every time I opened it, but only if I said no to "can I choose a character and class for you?" If I let it choose for me, it didn't segfault. This led to some interesting character types and classes for a while (I got a new high score with my samurai) until I googled and found the bug report.
Apparently the problem is that my terminal window was too small. I like it small. And that doesn't explain why it only happened when I chose my own character/class. It also doesn't explain why this only started happening to me yesterday, when the bug's apparently existed for years now. But at least I know how to fix it.
Apparently the problem is that my terminal window was too small. I like it small. And that doesn't explain why it only happened when I chose my own character/class. It also doesn't explain why this only started happening to me yesterday, when the bug's apparently existed for years now. But at least I know how to fix it.
I'm browsing GelaSkins, a place that makes custom art removable stickers for portable devices. They're extremely pretty, but unfortunately cost USD$19.95 each plus $19.95 international shipping. I'm thinking of buying one anyway.
The ones I've saved to my del.icio.us and am dithering between:
Noble Voices I don't know what it is, but it has a cat in its hair!
War of the Monsters
The Enamored Whale This one reminds me of The Loneliest Whale.
Blue Willow
The Soundtrack Too depressing?
Cable Cranes
Sosheskaz Falls
Almond Branches in Bloom They had Starry Night too, but I thought that was a bit too cliche, even though I love it.
What the website doesn't seem to tell me is whether, once you've removed a sticker, you can reapply it at a later date. I shall email them.
The ones I've saved to my del.icio.us and am dithering between:
Noble Voices I don't know what it is, but it has a cat in its hair!
War of the Monsters
The Enamored Whale This one reminds me of The Loneliest Whale.
Blue Willow
The Soundtrack Too depressing?
Cable Cranes
Sosheskaz Falls
Almond Branches in Bloom They had Starry Night too, but I thought that was a bit too cliche, even though I love it.
What the website doesn't seem to tell me is whether, once you've removed a sticker, you can reapply it at a later date. I shall email them.
CLI-based media player?
Jul. 6th, 2009 02:45 amI am fed up to the teeth with Amarok 2 and its constant crashing and memory hogging. I want something very small and simple, preferably command-line based.
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cumbernotathome, I seem to vaguely recall that you had something like that. What was it called?
Or_marcelo, you're the sort of person who would probably use a command line to listen to music.
Bueller?
cumbernotathome, I seem to vaguely recall that you had something like that. What was it called?Or
_marcelo, you're the sort of person who would probably use a command line to listen to music.Bueller?
KDE 4: not impressed
Nov. 24th, 2008 08:55 pmI upgraded to Kubuntu Intrepid Ibex yesterday, switching from KDE3.5 to KDE4.1. This is indirectly related to my desire to use a python-based ebook reading-and-converting application for purposes the DMCA would not approve of (the Hardy repository didn't have a new enough version of python-lxml, but I digress. Suffice it to say that there are very few lengths of messing around with my computer that I would not go to once I've set my mind on a task.)
Plasma just crashed, leaving me unable to access my already-open applications until I could remember what this iteration of KDE calls the thing at the bottom with the open applications on it (as opposed to the thing at the bottom and the thing on the bottom with the K on it that launches the applications. Which is not what it called them yesterday, when I was using KDE3.5.
I've finally gotten everything back how I like it, but I'm living under the knowledge that the graphical engine for this wonderful, new, widget-ridden, modern fucker of a desktop environment could crash without notice for no known reason and leave me unable to find the task bar (that's what I call it, not what it's officially called by KDE) until I reinstall it. To say nothing of the clock (which is not natively installed on the taskbar, because users might prefer an analogue clock or a binary clock (yes, a binary clock, that's a clock in binary) or all three types of clock at once, and we can't infringe their right to choice.)
And then, having reinstalled it, I'll have to reinstall all the custom applications I keep on the task bar, excuse me, workspace panel containing the task manager widget by switching the application launcher to the new Kickoff version and right-clicking and choosing an option (in KDE 3.5 you could drag and drop them) and then switching it back to Classic because I hate Kickoff.
Is it just me, or are widgets meant to be unimportant things that don't matter if they crash, like the phase of the moon or a photo of your cat or a jigsaw puzzle or a realtime ticker of your stock options? Not things that are actually necessary to navigate the filesystem? And I know that technically I could do ctr+alt+F1 and navigate the filesystem from a CLI, but I happen to believe that there are good things about desktop environments (*dark look* well, some desktop environments) and prefer my CLI (which of course I'm not trying to do without altogether, don't be stupid) in an X window.
Plasma just crashed, leaving me unable to access my already-open applications until I could remember what this iteration of KDE calls the thing at the bottom with the open applications on it (as opposed to the thing at the bottom and the thing on the bottom with the K on it that launches the applications. Which is not what it called them yesterday, when I was using KDE3.5.
I've finally gotten everything back how I like it, but I'm living under the knowledge that the graphical engine for this wonderful, new, widget-ridden, modern fucker of a desktop environment could crash without notice for no known reason and leave me unable to find the task bar (that's what I call it, not what it's officially called by KDE) until I reinstall it. To say nothing of the clock (which is not natively installed on the taskbar, because users might prefer an analogue clock or a binary clock (yes, a binary clock, that's a clock in binary) or all three types of clock at once, and we can't infringe their right to choice.)
And then, having reinstalled it, I'll have to reinstall all the custom applications I keep on the task bar, excuse me, workspace panel containing the task manager widget by switching the application launcher to the new Kickoff version and right-clicking and choosing an option (in KDE 3.5 you could drag and drop them) and then switching it back to Classic because I hate Kickoff.
Is it just me, or are widgets meant to be unimportant things that don't matter if they crash, like the phase of the moon or a photo of your cat or a jigsaw puzzle or a realtime ticker of your stock options? Not things that are actually necessary to navigate the filesystem? And I know that technically I could do ctr+alt+F1 and navigate the filesystem from a CLI, but I happen to believe that there are good things about desktop environments (*dark look* well, some desktop environments) and prefer my CLI (which of course I'm not trying to do without altogether, don't be stupid) in an X window.
