Some Software I Found
Luakit
Luakit is a really light weight browser built upon the webkit engine. All user configuration is done via lua files (samples are provided). It is another of those "micro-browsers" that has popped up recently, with a twist: It's designed to more of a framework for a micro-browser than a browser itself. The entire interface is created by the user. It claims to be similar to other micro-browsers like jumanji, uzbl, and surf.
Using the browser will feel a bit like using vim, with both buffer commands and a full command mode. To fill out forms on a webpage one must enter insert mode. It is extremely keyboard centric. Because of this and how light weight the browser is, it has become the default browser on my netbook. Opera has been my default browser since version 8.5 released ad-free in 2005. I am even using it right now on my desktop along side Opera.
It does have a few problems: Downloading files is a little wonky because it simply executes wget. It may be that I've messed with some of the configs, but I don't get any download notifications. The files do download to the directory defined in my globals.lua, but the browser does not indicate this. The javascript engine is also really slow. Sites like netflix will crawl to a halt in luakit. Other webkit browsers like Arora and Chromium/Chrome behave just fine on this and other sites with lots of javascript. Of course I am spoiled when it comes to Javascript experience, using Opera as my main browser and all. This issue has been brought up and is hopefully being looked into.
Redshift
Redshift is a great little tool that will change the color temperature of your monitor based on time of day. The reason for this is that daylight tends to be blue and monitors generally display at a very blue color. But at night, when you're using lights, the color temperature of these lights tend to be more in the red range. Another tool called f.lux exists, and I would recommend this one for OSX and Windows users (Redshift's Windows version is "highly experimental"). The Linux version of f.lux, however, lacks a GUI and seems to eat a ton of CPU (at least for me) when it's actually transitioning from day to night. Redshift does not chew through cycles during the transition (it is, in fact, very smooth and pretty) and does have a fairly competent graphical interface (it just wraps around the CLI version, in usual Unix/Linux style). I used to use f.lux and it worked wonders for my eyes at night. Redshift provides the same benefits for reducing eyestrain, I just feel it is a nicer program to work with for Linux users.
NX
Here's a nice program for everyone who needs a remote desktop connection. NX is a relatively new method of remote access. What sets it apart from VNC or X over SSH is that it is far, far faster. In various spots around campus, the wireless network is incredibly slow due to the volume of users. In these locations, xpra, VNC, and X over SSH performed quite poorly. NX, on the other hand, was quite usable. When I am at work on an ethernet connection, the responsiveness of the NX server nears local speeds. It is quite an impressive tool. It allows for desktop virtualization, akin to VNC as well as blending the applications in with your current display ala X over SSH or xpra. Either style of session can be disconnected and reconnected anywhere. The Free server exists for Linux and Solaris with clients for Windows, Linux, OSX, and Solaris. One can even install the "Web Companion" that provides a java applet that behaves as a client.
xchainkeys
Xchainkeys replicates behavior found in various window managers. It basically provides keyboard shortcuts to launch programs and run commands. It also allows for one to set up a chain of commands. For example, if I press Windows+Q, I enter a chain I set up for browsers. If I press Q again, Opera launches. A launches luakit, W chromium, and S firefox. All of this can be done in, for example, Openbox. It has native support for these key chains. On my desktop, however, I run Compiz as a window manager, and it provides only 11 commands, one of which had to be used for the desktop menu (compiz-deskmenu). It also has no support for key chains. This means I am very limited in the number of commands I can bind to keyboard shortcuts. I now have 15 different commands being executed via keyboard shortcuts, with twelve of them being under various chains. An incredibly useful program for those that desire a little more flexibility out of their keyboard shortcuts and are limited by their current window manager. My config.
One of the Odd Things I Miss About Andy
From feldspar, the alias to ssh into andy was candy, as in connect to andraia. The alias for ophiuchus is cophi. I mean, it keeps with the edibles theme, but.. I don't drink coffee :/
Posting from ophiuchus
Pulled all the data off AndrAIa's 250GB and onto ophiuchus' 320GB. Not much of a space upgrade, but whatever, I need to be conscious of the amount of data I'm hoarding anyway.
Took pretty much the whole day to get ophi set up. Well, Linux anyway. Building him and installing / setting up Win7 was mostly painless (just a few CDs lost in the drive...) and that was the day prior, surrounding Casey's meat party (not gay). The onboard audio is nice in only one way: It has a headphone jack on the front of the computer that plugs directly into the onboard audio card. This is actually only half of one way: The headphone cuts out the back speaker port in Windows (as it should). They both run in Linux. OK, that's not so much of a problem, just a minor annoyance. I don't even feel like moving my speakers over to the computer yet anway, might just keep them hooked up to the Gamecube. The onboard audio sucks in that alsa won't give me built in bass/treble sliders for the card. It did for the Sound Blaster PCI512 and the Audigy ZX. I just popped the Audigy into ophi and, while it detects that the card is plugged in (lspci), alsa doesn't detect it. Oh well. I'll probably just let it sit there, or rip it out later and ebay it or something. Even though the Audigy would put out such better sound, I dont really feel like fighting with anything more right now.
Jeremy might give me something for the GeForce 7600GT from Andy as well.
I found a software equalizer solution, and the settings given on the Arch wiki are a lot better than it normally sounds, but I need to learn how to play with equalizers and what each band means / effects (I'm just given numbers that correspond to each band... no sliders for me). Also, the software equalizer eats some CPU. With only Opera, mpd, and the equalizer running, both cores are idling around 4%. Without the equalizer, with Opera, they'd both be at 1% or below. But hey, at least the cores are being used, yeah?? I see it fluctuate between three and six percent on the first and four and five on the second. I love seeing two arch logos on boot representing the two cores and having two percentage/usage bars in conky :D
(03:47:16 AM) Jeremy: you put about as much time into switching arch around as i do my windows, its just a matter of what your primary os is
Sort of. I spent most of the day just trying to get shit downloaded and installed on this shitty stolen wifi (cocmast dude comes on Tuesday). Afterwards I spent a lot of time fighting with sound and a couple other things (why does gnome-settings-daemon set my background on the laptop but not on the desktop? Both machines start it when openbox runs, so they should behave the same).
I think it's just about done. This means I can go about looking for jobs again. Or playing Team Fortress 2 with Casey, Matt, Sarah, David, or whoever else come Tuesday. I think I might have a "Happy Real Internet Day!" party on Tuesday. I think I'll have been stealing wifi for nearly two weeks by that point!
Anyway, fucker is orange. See the bottom part of the white section? The dvd tray pops up VERTICALLY FROM THERE. LIKE A GODDAMN TOASTER. HOLY SHIT IT'S AWESOME. Except when I lose the teeth that are supposed to hold the disc in and drop a disc or two IN the drive. It's a pain in the ass to get those fuckers out of there.
- Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.8GHz
- 2GB DDR2 PC6400 RAM
- Geforce 8800GTS 512MB (with free copy of Call of Duty: World at War, normally a $50 game)
- 1 160GB SATA II HDD
- 1 320GB SATA II HDD
I think that's all the important stuff? Clearly decidely a mid-range machine. That's all I need. It'll play TF2 beautifully. It was only $500. Andy was $800 when I bought her years ago. The motherboard is your standard microATX motherboard. I was originally planning on going for a smaller case (similar to Mom's new one), but most of them don't hold graphics cards, let alone beasts like the 8800 and above. My case is not as deep as most, though, so it is still easier to carry around and it just feels lighter that both andy AND Mom's new one (thing is DENSE!)!
I'm using andy's old 19" display in the middle of my desk. Got Sarah's 19" off to the left and am displaying the laptop on that. The laptop itself sits on the elevated laptop stand to the right, but I couldn't read the display from there. It serves as a place to set things for now.
Got synergy and hamachi all set up, had to change a few aliases on feldspar's end and change the synergy config, but otherwise it was pretty easy to migrate from andy to ophi.
Somehow in playing around with oss (not much better than alsa for what I want) and reinstalling alsa, I got sound working in Doom3. The standard Quake3 engine maxes at 1000 frames per second, but refuses to give sound (not able to map /dev/dsp for whatever reason). Even though I set the cap at 9000, the game hardcaps at 1000. I think with the 6600GT (never tryed the 7600GT) I was able to get around 300-400 frames. If I uncap the frames from 60, my character constantly looks at the floor. If I cap it again, I can only look up or down. If I restart the game and keep the frames capped at 60, I can look around like normal until I uncap it again. The ioquake engine refuses to run, giving some OpenAL (like OpenGL, but for audio, derp) error that I don't feel like dealing with yet.
I, sadly, deleted UT2k4 quite some time ago. I would love to play that game right now. I need more native Linux games.
I opted to put Openbox on ophi instead of going the XFCE+Compiz route. I would like to have the flash of Compiz, but since both Openbox and Compiz are window managers... that can't happen. The main reason I switched was because XFCE 4.6 no longer has customizable right-click menus (on the desktop). Since that is my main method of launching programs, I'd rather have a menu that has only what I need instead of the generic crap that the new XFCE menu gave. Customizability > eye-candy. Plus Openbox is light. XFCE was already light for a desktop environment, but Openbox ain't even that. Just a straight up window manager, nothing more. Shit is snappy on the laptop, it SCREAMS on the desktop.
The case is really pretty. I love it. The blue power light on the front has a red LED in it for HDD access. I just LOVE the way it looks.
I think the most CPU intensive game I have under either operating system is actually Dwarf Fortress. For some reason the Windows version through wine runs better than the native Linux one.. I haven't actually ever run the game under Windows. While it doesn't take advantage of multi cores, the second core should at least prevent the game from grinding my system to a halt. I could barely browse the web on andy while playing dorfs.
Shit yeah it runs well now. I wonder how many people get new rigs just to run dorffort well.
I should also figure out sleep/hibernate under linux.
It's ten in the morning. Sarah woke me up by calling me at four in the afternoon... My sleep schedule is so nasty right now.
I was all type type type for the longest time with this post. Now I've run out of steam. I think it's time to call it a day.
Also, six days from now marks seven years of journal-y-ness.
Posting from feldspar
OK, so, I got X working on feldspar. Compiz, for some reason, refuses to run and instead locks the whole computer. OK, well, Compiz + XFCE is a bit heavy for this computer anyway.. so I decided to finally give OpenBox a shot. It's really fast, everything is up in no time and it's amazingly customizable. I haven't even started playing around with the scripts that other people have written yet. I think I'm gonna forgo Compiz + XFCE for OpenBox on Ophiuchus when he gets here.
I got the deal with newegg sorted out, newegg was still looking for my old card, but I had put in the details for my new card (the old one expires at the end of this month). He should be here tomorrow (Thursday) or Friday.
There are two cats here now. Black one is Uhura, the Orange one is Zoey. They hate each other. Orangey likes to rub up against everything in site, including me. She'll rub her body along my legs while I'm cooking or washing the dishes, which is not the ideal time for such an activity. It's really funny the way she leans her body when she does it, though. Also, she sheds like crazy. These two activities may or may not be related.
I just burned myself trying to light this candle with a standard bic lighter... ugh. Ow ow ow. I hope this doesn't blister.
I was gonna write more but the cat and customizing OpenBox has distracted me so much I forgot what else I was gonna say.
Good night.
Posting from Wii
AndrAIa dead. Feldspar no X (few sites work well with links), flaky stolen wifi.
Ordered Ophiuchus. I hope. Money I need for rent.. newegg/Charter One constantly declining my card. Newegg claims C1's fault; C1 newegg.
CMC still hasn't approved resume. Cannot upload files (to monster.com) from Wii.
Dumb.
I miss Sarah.