Recent Posts

1801

General Software Discussion / Re: Help for solving a XP home lan mystery

« Last post by Edvard on May 01, 2009, 07:02 PM »

Have you tried turning off the Windows firewall?
Turning it off magically solved our VNC problems here at work...

1802

General Software Discussion / Re: Any freeware alternatives to Faststone MaxView?

« Last post by Edvard on May 01, 2009, 06:02 PM »

Is there any license restriction against XnView?

They have a new multi-platform version in beta right now. Built with Qt4. Looks real nice. I'm going to be testing it over the next week or so.

1803

Living Room / Re: Interesting Discovery Involving Rented Servers

« Last post by Edvard on May 01, 2009, 10:21 AM »

As for wiping a Windows system if you don't have a "fancy host", I guess the solution would be overwriting the MBR with a disk-wipe tool... should definitely be doable, but I don't know any that supports this off-the-shelf.

Doesn't plain ol' fdisk do this?

If that doesn't work, just post your email to a disreputable website, turn off your anti-virus, and you'll get MBR-corrupting software delivered right to your inbox! 

1804

Living Room / Re: Webcomic: Left Handed Toons (by right-handed people)

« Last post by Edvard on April 30, 2009, 06:21 PM »

Looking through the old ones, I came across this gem...




 

1805

General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu 9.04: Thoughts and experiences

« Last post by Edvard on April 29, 2009, 10:46 AM »

It's been bug-reported to death already:
https://bugs.launchp...figstudio/+bug/63477
https://bugs.launchp...igstudio/+bug/277926

Here's the noise:
http://www.google.co...untu+synfig+segfault

So it's been broken through 3 Ubuntu versions. Bad. 
Jokosher was almost as bad, but apparently it worked just fine for some folks.

1806

Living Room / Re: Interesting Discovery Involving Rented Servers

« Last post by Edvard on April 29, 2009, 10:23 AM »

Good advice, thanks.

This happens in the consumer world as well. Used disks from computer parts shops are notorious for having all kinds of stuff on them. One time I even accidentally booted up a full Win98 installation that was left on a 540 Meg drive that I hadn't formatted yet, and wondered where all the extra desktop icons came from before realizing what was going on...

Didn't know it happens in server-land. You'd think people would have half a clue...

1807

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Edvard on April 28, 2009, 05:07 PM »

Goes with this topic, eh?
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=18067.0
 

1808

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Edvard on April 28, 2009, 04:56 PM »

hehe, just found this clever animated gif:

1809

General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu 9.04: Thoughts and experiences

« Last post by Edvard on April 28, 2009, 04:31 PM »

Adding myself to the 'audio' group was the only thing missing. Everything else is just experimenting inside Qjackctl until I get decent latency without xruns. (5.3 ms FTW!!!11!!11)

I've always wanted to try UbuntuStudio, but always thought it was best to install it as a dedicated DAW, not as a general desktop distro.

And, if you're a distro junkie like me, give 64Studio a try, I hear it's nice. I'm going to try it out once I get 9.04 installed as my main baby.

>>BACK ON TOPIC<<

I've noticed 9.04 has a little more 'snap' than 8.10, but not much. Synfigstudio is STILL broken even though a stable version has been available from the website since last year. Why even package and ship a broken version?
Jokosher works now (finally!!). I've been waiting at least 2 versions for that.
Everything else is chugging along smoothly. Network Manager appears to be fixed but I have now uninstalled it (fixed but still annoying as ever...) and went with a static config as I don't need wireless management.

1810

General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu 9.04: Thoughts and experiences

« Last post by Edvard on April 28, 2009, 10:41 AM »

Did you add yourself to the 'audio' group?

For years, no matter what distro I've been on, for some stooooooooopid reason I always have to do that for audio to work.
This time, everything ran ok until I tried to run jackd in realtime (with realtime kernel, natch). 

1811

General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu 9.04: Thoughts and experiences

« Last post by Edvard on April 27, 2009, 06:26 PM »

AHA! The old oops-I-burned-the-iso-too-fast error, eh? Good thing you caught it soon.
But why, pray tell, did you go and install PulseAudio? WhyWhyWhy? 

1812

General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu 9.04: Thoughts and experiences

« Last post by Edvard on April 27, 2009, 01:24 PM »

Did  they finally get their hassles with Pulse Audio sound fixed?

-40hz (April 24, 2009, 06:19 PM)

As I am running Xubuntu, I don't have to deal with PulseAudio.
...yet.

I will install PulseAudio when:
[1] They pull my cold, dead fingers off my keyboard.
[2] Pulse Audio transcends itself to become the audio system instead of an ugly hack on top of the existing one.

OK, OK, I understand it is currently the only way to get multiple audio streams reliably and it has come a long way since becoming the default audio system for Ubuntu (probably the BIGGEST reason why. All those noobs complaining will get anybody bugfixing in a hurry...).
It's STILL an ugly hack.
I don't blame the developers for doing their best to come up with an audio system that (mostly) just works, it's been needed for quite some time, I just seriously doubt that doing it this way is the best solution in the long-term.

Anyway, 9.04 is humming along just fine on my aging system.

1813

General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu 9.04: Thoughts and experiences

« Last post by Edvard on April 24, 2009, 01:16 PM »

So it looks like the official release came out today (yesterday by somebody's calendar  ).
Servers are giving me a page load error so they're obviously hammered.

I installed the last Xubuntu 9.04 beta and found a reasonably fast mirror for the updates so I'll stick with that.

So far I haven't noticed anything bad. I'll post again if anything comes up.

1814

Living Room / Webcomic: Left Handed Toons (by right-handed people)

« Last post by Edvard on April 23, 2009, 05:58 PM »

Here we go with yet another clever webcomic, this one by two guys named Drew and Justin...

Wouldn't it be fun to draw a whole bunch of cartoons using your non-dominant hand?  Yes?  That's exactly what we thought.  Besides, everyone knows that natural southpaws make the best alfredo pasta, investment decisions, and webcomics.  Well, we can do that too!  Despite our shared predilection to using the contrary appendage!  Cartoons drawn by the left hand are just always funnier, right?

This site is a collection of our random little toons ... all done lefty style!

http://www.lefthandedtoons.com/

Some funny, some silly, some weird, but baby, it's all good.
from random trippings around the 'net

1815

Living Room / Re: Oracle Buys Sun - Your Thoughts?

« Last post by Edvard on April 21, 2009, 07:03 PM »

I tried OpenSolaris because I do things like that, but I didn't quite get the hang of it.
It may be a proper Unix in the species sense, but that makes it almost, but not entirely, quite unlike Linux (my first love).
From what I've heard around the 'net, the system is quite nice, but I couldn't do anything advanced with it. Not that it couldn't, I was just unfamiliar with the toolset.

That being said, I have no idea what Oracle plans to do, but I seriously don't think they have what it takes to pitch for OpenSolaris in the already chaotic Desktop arena. I think it might be worth their while to re-tool Sparc with a heavy dose of R&D, hopefully resulting in a premier platform upon which they can then push OpenSolaris as the workstation/server brains. That bundled with VirtualBox might make for a mighty platform indeed.

As far as OpenOffice is concerned, there's too much momentum behind it to stop now. Oracle will either embrace it as a precious connection with the OSS community or they'll let it off the Sun leash so they can concentrate on other things. Same with MySQL.

Then again, it's entirely possible that I am completely clueless
 

1816

Living Room / The Desktop fight you've all been waiting for...

« Last post by Edvard on April 21, 2009, 03:49 PM »

Although I'm a big fan of Xfce, I found this article humorous, and it's good to see Linux Magazine back in the ring with a delightfully different method of doing reviews... 

GNOME vs. KDE: The Final Smackdown
Two Linux desktops step into the ring. But in the end, there can be only one…
---------------
Ken: Hello ladies and gentleman, and welcome to the Linux Magazine Arena in beautiful downtown San Francisco! We’re here for tonight’s main event; GNOME vs. KDE; The Final Smackdown! I’d also like to welcome my co-commentator for tonight’s battle royale;Red Debuntu Volkersworth.

Red: Thanks, Ken. The energy in this place is truly amazing! These two industry giants intend to settle the score once and for all, and only one can hold the title of Universal Linux Window Manager. Judging by the sound of the crowd, I’d say the two are about to enter the ring. Who’s the favorite in tonight’s challenge?

Ken: Vegas odds have it as an even match going into the fight, although there’s been some talk that KDE’s 4th incarnation might give it the punching power to finally take GNOME out once and for all.
...

http://www.linux-mag...om/cache/7296/1.html

from http://blogs.zdnet.c...9848&tag=nl.e589

1817

General Software Discussion / Re: Ubuntu 9.04: Thoughts and experiences

« Last post by Edvard on April 20, 2009, 11:02 AM »

So far, I've been ok. All my hardware works fine (though I'd KILL for a decent video card...) and almost ANYTHING would be better than 8.10 at this point. 

I tried Debian 5.0 and Sidux just to see if they were worth the fuss and damn was it fast, but there was no realtime kernel available, which is essential for multimedia, so that went away.
Apparently, there is some testing and progress in the dev channels WRT getting an 'official' realtime kernel for Debian, but bring up the subject on the forums and you get nothing but elitism and name-calling.
What a turn-off.

OpenSuse has a realtime kernel available with lots of community development behind it, good to see. Maybe I'll give that a shot. Then again, maybe not. I have never felt the love from an rpm-based distro, and there is no Xfce flavor.
Hm... is there an option to do a 'base' installation and then add the Xfce? Looks like there is..

So far, my main gripes with 8.10 have been alleviated in 9.04 (shutdown, network manager), although IMHO the *buntus as a whole could stand a little fat trimmed off. 

1818

Living Room / Re: Moar lightsabers plz

« Last post by Edvard on April 17, 2009, 07:29 PM »

What a cool resource, App!!
Thanks, I'll be using it from here on... 

1819

Living Room / Re: Moar lightsabers plz

« Last post by Edvard on April 17, 2009, 02:29 PM »

Done.

Also, App has shown her superior Google force powers in finding the sources for at least 3 of the original photos.
Thanks April!


 

1820

Living Room / Re: I'm bored, what to do?

« Last post by Edvard on April 17, 2009, 10:29 AM »

Go outside.  

If that's not an option, what kind of games to you like to play? What kind of web stuff do you find interesting? When you do a google search, what to you most often search for? Is there anything you'd like to learn about that you 'never got around to'?

1821

Living Room / Re: The Greatest Graphic Novel of All Time: Watchmen

« Last post by Edvard on April 09, 2009, 06:49 PM »

Hehe, I just saw this:

Hitler finds out about new Watchmen ending.

1822

Living Room / Re: Moar lightsabers plz

« Last post by Edvard on April 07, 2009, 12:21 PM »

I AM, however, the first to do it and compulsively and then blog about it.

-Edvard (April 07, 2009, 10:16 AM)

that's good enough for me. just make sure your blog remains the best when all the copycat blogs appear.

-nudone (April 07, 2009, 11:32 AM)

 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
-Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, volume I, no. 183

Poor is the student who does not surpass his master.
-Leonardo Da Vinci

1823

Living Room / Re: Moar lightsabers plz

« Last post by Edvard on April 07, 2009, 10:16 AM »

Is there a tutorial on how to do light sabers in the Gimp?

-Deozaan (April 07, 2009, 12:12 AM)

Yes, there are a few floating around. I took ideas from all of them and came up with my own method. I'll post it at the blog when I get some screenies together.

looks like you've come up with the next internet craze, Edvard. very clever.

(you are the first aren't you?)

-nudone (April 07, 2009, 02:46 AM)

Weeeellllll... yes and no. As far as I can see, I'm not the only one to put lightsabers in people's hands.
This guy's mashup actually made it to Jay Leno

I AM, however, the first to do it and compulsively and then blog about it. 

1824

Living Room / Re: Moar lightsabers plz

« Last post by Edvard on April 06, 2009, 07:21 PM »

Cool idea. I like the look of your blog. Simple and clean  .

Maybe add a "submit a photo for processing form" or something like that.

-PhilB66 (April 06, 2009, 07:13 PM)

I think I'd be quickly buried with submissions, and then it'd be too much like work.  

1825

Living Room / Moar lightsabers plz

« Last post by Edvard on April 06, 2009, 06:53 PM »

After posting some pictures with lightsabers added to them in the Silly Pictures thread here, here and here, I found myself compulsively firing up the Gimp and adding lightsabers to pictures that caught my fancy in travels around the 'net. Most of them I threw away, but I saved a few and put them up here:

I’m not even a great Star Wars fan, but I have this weird compulsion to draw lightsabers into random pictures from the web, especially if it lends a humorous slant to the picture. Hopefully this blog will cure my obsession…

http://moarlightsabers.wordpress.com/

Enjoy! 

from moi