Coding tools

Coding tools
I've been helping FireRabbit with his GladeSharpCodeGenerator that I mentioned last week. Its now loading its own glade file and images from an embedded resource, which has helped make it far more independant of the directory structure - which means I can now add it to gnome panels and menus as a shortcut. I'm hoping to help with some more things (perhaps looking at returning useful stats from the GenerateCode method) soon. Still, gave me a chance to talk to Miguel on irc :-)

[Listening to: DeCibelle - The Prayer ]

Linux phone home

Linux phone home

from the Earth-calling-Tux dept.

Trying to get my Orange SPV C500 to work with my Linux laptop - I'll let you know how that goes...

Update : Needs a patch to the kernel module. will read up on getting the Ubuntu kernel sources later...

[Listening to: Jess from Overlanders - Creatine]

GnuDoku

GnuDoku

from the one-to-nine dept.

For those Linux users that are hooked by this current SuDoku game craze, you can satisfy your craving with GnuDoku. I'm not into it personally, but I look forward to being able to solve the cash prize ones using the computer

Fix for latest pymusique on ubuntu

Fix for latest pymusique on Ubuntu

from the oh-my-god-i-just-learned-Python dept.

Ubuntu update ran this morning and updated my pymusique to version 0.5-1~5.04ubp1 - but when I tried to start the app it came up with an error message and failed to start.

I don't know a lot about Python, but I code in other languages so was able to come up with this fix :-

sudo nano -w +166 /usr/bin/pymusique

should open the nano editor (easiest for beginners!) with the file loaded and the cursor at the right line which looks like this

column.set_fixed_width(int(cwidths[4]))

Change the 4 to a 3 so the line should now read like this

column.set_fixed_width(int(cwidths[3]))

save the file by pressing CTRL O then exit nano by pressing CTRL X

You should now be able to launch pymusique

I don't know if this is an Ubuntu specific problem or an upstream one, and I don't have time to find out - I have a day job!

Linux gains, Linux Losses

Linux gains, Linux Losses

from the heads-you-win dept.

Added a couple of fun little programs to my Linux build this morning. Firstly, the game Monkey Bubble, which is a Bust-A-Move clone similar to the other Linux classic, Frozen Bubble. The other program was Audacity, an audio editor, which I used to edit a little section of Chas n Dave's track Rabbit for a friend at work.

Not all good news on the Linux front though - Ubuntu ran some updates this morning and installed a broken version of PyMusique. Grrrrr

[Listening to: X-formZ - Ooh Crikey - There are many sheep in outer mongolia]

You know you're having a bad day at work when....

You know you're having a bad day at work when....

from the Manic-Monday dept.

...you find out the print server burst into flames over the weekend due to an antivirus software patch consuming 100% CPU time and making that lil' ol' Pentium get too hot.

[Listening to: www.slayradio.org ]

Another blogging tool

Just testing another GTK based blogging tool, ignore me :-P

Geldof, Gandalf - same thing

Geldof, Gandalf - same thing

from the Lord-of-the-Rats dept.

Classic quote of the day from my mate jimbob :-

Jimbob: If only Bob Gandalf had thought of doing a concert in aid of 'Make Orcs History'... would have been a completely different film

[Listening to: Alpha Male - Royksopp - The Understanding CD (8:11)]

Cross platform

Cross platform

from the app-now-at-platform-5 dept.

Gave in to demand from Mug UK for my Quartet convertor to be on Windows. Neither this nor the Linux version are anywhere near finished yet, but it did give me a nice opportunity to test development using Glade and GTK under Windows. Using the same Glade XML output file and the same code to bring the UI into the app, this is what it produced (see earlier post for original Linux screenshot)

Speed improvements

Speed improvements

from the turbo-boost dept.

As mentioned in an earlier post, this site has been loading slow of late. This was due to all the links to off-site blog toys and webrings etc. I've decided to de-clutter the blog template and as a result, things should be a bit quicker now.

All hail the FireRabbit!

All hail the FireRabbit

from the combustible-Lagomorphs dept.

Very impressive app by Eric "FireRabbit" Butler that generates the necessary declarations and code-stubs for Glade# apps from the Glade xml file

[Listening to: Nagira - Ra-shasha ]

Just another Mono Monday

Just another Mono Monday

from the code-'til-it-works dept.

Reasonably productive on the train this morning with my laptop - once I got the damned thing to startup again (that graphics card problem is back - go browse the archives if you want details). I did a little bit more work on my Quartet2MOD sound file convertor program. The user interface is pretty much there now (not that there is much to it, but its a nice lesson in GTK# for me), and I've started the actual data conversion routines this lunchtime. Quick screenshot (not very interesting one) below :-

Game of the week

Game of the Week

from the this-is-not-a-regular-feature dept.

This week, I shall be mostly playing The Sims Bustin' Out on the Gameboy Advance SP

Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu Linux

from the humanity-to-others dept.

Replaced the Gentoo Linux installation on my laptop with Ubuntu Linux and although its still early stages, I'm quite impressed so far. Once I had a reliable installation disc (magazine coverdisc, since my downloaded and burned ISOs failed), installation was pretty smooth, except for the very long time it takes to detect software and security network repositories. Seems to be a known problem, judging by various forum postings, but the trick is to just wait it out.

Once installed, things seemed to run reasonably well. An icon-free desktop takes some getting used to, but I managed to rearrange the default GNOME menus and panels to my taste. One thing that very much impressed me was that the installation detected my machine was a Toshiba laptop and installed the Toshiba Extras kernel modules automatically. This is particularly important for my machine, which has a tendency to overheat, so I have a script that switches on the fan that would only work with these kernel modules enabled.

Software installation seems relativly straightforward. Synaptic is a nice clean front end, similar to Porthole on Gentoo. Dependencies seem to get worked out much like they did in Portage, and you get the added bonus of speed, since you're installing binary packages and not compiling from source. Some of the versions of the software could be a little more recent, but that could be down to my repository settings - something I need to investigate, since I was hoping for the latest Mono release (1.17 if I recall).

Overall, I'd say I like Ubuntu based on a couple of hours looking at it - but that horrible poo brown colour theme has got to go!

[Listening to: Amp - Kinetix (Lost Utopia Mix) ]

Site slowness

Site slowness

from the dragging-me-down dept.

Had a few reports of the site being slow to load and/or render. From what I can work out, this is due to some of the banners and misc blog toys on the sidebar menu to the left. I'm gonna clean up some of the cruft in the next day or two, which should help things run a little smoother.

Visiting the penguins

Visiting the penguins

from the we-love-Sphenisciformes dept.

Central to the fantastic weekend I had in London was a trip to London Zoo, who have 34 Black-Footed (or Jackass or African - they have many names!) Penguins (Spheniscus Demersus)and a couple of Rockhopper Penguins (Eudyptes chrysocome). The gift shop also has the largest amount of penguin merchandise I have seen gathered in one place (outside of my own collection!).

The other cool thing was a promotion Sony were doing at the zoo, whereby you coould borrow a DVD Handycam (digital camcorder that records direct to mini DVDs) for 30 mins. Luckily I managed to get my hands on one 2 minutes before the penguin feeding time, so I got some nice footage of our little feathered friends - I'm just trying to encode the video down to something suitable for putting online, so watch this space!

UPDATE Ok, the video is now available. Please be advised that the file is 36MB, so I would advise against downloading it if you're still on dialup! Also, you will need the XviD codec to view it.

Another amusing sign

Another amusing sign

from the they-have-Yorkshiremen-in-Italy dept.

Out at lunchtime for the second time (first attempt aborted when unable to get money out of Bank due to computer error), I spotted this display



I'm sure they're trying to sell panini, and not the Pennines