Archive for June, 2008

Ubuntu and lame

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

Yep, this is getting lame… it seems half this blog is becoming a collection of quick links and tips on surviving Ubuntu. Well anyway: the lame I found in the package manager did not work. Downloading & compiling the source myself worked without a hitch (it does need some build-tools, but apparently I had them floating around — probably after the xmms install…).

And, speaking of handy links and also to add some news for you, my trustworthy readers: This link may actually help me getting my USBAP Dongle working under Unix (still need to follow that up, unfortunately my dongle is from Bigben, and not from Datel; fortunately, the whole world seems to be using roughly the same chipset, so it might work in the end(tm)). Ow, and I am the proud owner of eee PC:P It rocks :)

Update: found some images of the driver disc on the web that have the “Datel” logo there… so this might be a quite viable option :) :)

Slight activity

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

It has been a while since I did some things (actually, it has been a while since I did loads of things ;-). This weekend so far seems to pick up some of them. I am playing SMG (no, not that SMG) once again, reading GEB, being sportive, cleaning my room a bit (not finished, more planned today), uploading photo’s and ripping cd’s (okay, that is wishful thinking at the moment), doing sunday shopping at Delhaize (also wishful thinking, and not happening if I don’t hurry).

Okay, anyway, what feels really nice right now (exactly now) is having run once again. It has been ages, and in the beginning I felt like I wouldn’t last. So I did :) Don’t you just love that extra push you can get out of that sort of thing once in a while? Well, it almost never works for me, but sometimes, denying the obvious feels just too right, and so it does now. I actually managed to run quite a bit — every time I felt like it was close to enough, there was no decent shortcut in sight (except once, but then I figured “we can just as well take a look in the park instead of returning home”) and every time there was a choice of roads, I felt too energetic to go home. Which became somewhat awkward near the end, I can tell you that :) I managed to finally get home by tricking myself — this energetic avoidance mechanism did not recognise the backside of my convent as belonging to ‘home’, so I was at the backdoor before my body started feeling too energetic to stop. Turns out I ran for something in the order of 50 minutes to one hour (not too sure, didn’t take a watch, but estimates based on music played while I was away). Which is quite surprising, given that I really haven’t had any decent exercise the last couple of way-too-longs.

So I am typing this as I just returned (really: opened the door, threw shirt in a corner and started typing), and I am feeling very happy. (And that’s not just running, but right now that *is* a large part of it).

Best from the ‘Bourg for now,

Hugo.

Gaming galore

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

With Rogier over last weekend, we got round to some gaming. Couldn’t find the exact level that swayed me, but it resembles this one a lot [edit: Well it wasn’t. It was this one :)]. It reminded me once again that Super Mario Galaxy is just an awesome game.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I got to hook my Wii up a bit :)

Too bad Bigben Interactive doesn’t have a Linux/Debian driver for their WiFiMax usb stick… :(

Downloading *is* illegal in .nl, says judge

Friday, June 27th, 2008

See the verdict (dutch). Will have to think about the implications a bit, especially its impact on DRM systems (one of my research hobbies).

In other news: Things are going swell, Anke & Rogier came by (was much fun), Bras & Diana are mom&dad (though not in that order) and I’ll be taking the afternoon off to relax a bit :)

Ubuntu 8.04 and xmms

Friday, June 13th, 2008

Xmms don’t no longer no packagy downloady instally in Ubunty.

Err, I mean: Ubuntu 8.04 does not have a package for xmms. As everyone knows, xmms is the single most perfect music player on the face of this planet or any other non-gasgiant planet, and happens to do your laundry at the same time as clean your appartment. So obviously, we need it. All of us. And now, we have some guidelines! (Yes, I could probably have figured that out myself, but I am a lazy bastard). Will get back to you to see if this works :)

Update:  Not only does it work, I also learned in due course that the Ubuntu equivalent of Windows-key+R (run) is Alt+F2. Might try to find out more aboutsimilar keyboard shortcuts now :)

Ubuntu++

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

I’ve been running the newest Ubuntu for a couple of days now. Major +: screen resolution is ok immediately (without shooting down X). Biggest -: fonts in FF3b5 have changed in slight but annoying ways; XMMS is no longer available under Ubuntu++ :( :( :( (need to find the package for Ubuntu 7 somewhere).