T

wo excellent themes combined. The windowdecorations are silmathorons Aluminium 1.1+2.0 (Emerald Beryl theme). An Emerald theme created to match the Aluminium theme for gtk2.

The Gtk2-theme used here is a combination of the standard Clearlooks-theme and the Aluminium-theme. I call it dclear.

The background btw is one of the staple wallpapers for ubuntu-studio.

Compiz to the rescue... Again!

G

rowing resentment over Metacitys inability to let me choose which mouse-button to use for resizing windows has led me into the loving arms of Compiz, once again.

I thought that I could learn to live with the GNOME Desktop hegemony but I was wrong. After a long and hard search of the internet I have yet to find an elegant solution to my problem; remapping "-Mouse2" to "-Mouse3". I even went so far as to consider KDE4. Since KDE4 doesn't seem to be ready to emancipate me just yet I had to find someting else to get the job done.

Compiz does it again. I found that I would rather have a slightly heavier desktop than live with using the middle mouse-button to resize my windows. After tweaking the Compiz settings a bit it proves quite fast and I do like that windows fade to gray instead of displaying an hourglass/wristwatch at the cursor. Windows going down in a blaze of fire is also good fun.

Absurdly kitchy computer case!

A

bout two months ago we decided to purchase a new computer desk. A computer desk that would fit better into our new home.

I had installed most of the components of our small computer system into the new desk when disaster struck! The most important component of all - the actual computer didn't fit! The computer compartment was too small to house the bloated (Fujitsu-Siemens Scaleo T) computer case!

Yes I know... I'm an idiot for not taking the measurements of the case before leaving for IKEA. But in every failure there's an opportunity - sometimes for more mistakes.

Before calling me an idiot. Bare in mind that I have already gotten what I deserve in my new computer case.

We decided to get a new case... (this was not the mistake).We decided to get a white computer case... (we're getting close). The actual mistake emerged as a slight oversight. I had tried very hard to make the computer desk and computer components look unified, in doing this I had forgotten a small detail - the color of the old case's front-components.

Believe it or not but I did not notice this obvious aesthetic issue before migrating the contents of the old computer case to the new one. However after slamming the front cover shut, it slowly dawned on me... I had made a slight color matching error.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the case wasn't the same shade of white as the desk and the silver linings made the case look like a gaudy old ivory makeup case. In the combination with the off black components the case has reached a new height of originality and lack of style.

Back to the original

A

few years back when I was first introduced to the graphical world of Linux - there were two graphical interfaces to choose from; KDE and GNOME. The K Desktop Environment (KDE) looked more like a newer implementation of the windows gui while the Gnu Network Object Model Environment, while resembling the mac interface, just seemed more outlandish and original.

A lot of the percieved originality was probably due to the default window-manager in GNOME; Sawfish.

Unlike Metacity (the current window-manager in GNOME) Sawfish allows for the Meta+Mouse3 (Alt+right mouse button) window resizing that I previously wanted in an earlier post.

While using the old window-manager did work it also created a lot of compability issues. These issues clouded the consistency of the Ubuntu desktop i bit. For example the sawfish workspace switcher proved impossible to turn off! Themes obviously don't work as they used etc etc. All of this made me give up my quest for Alt+Mouse3 clicking. I now use the standard desktop as provided.

In the earilier post I sought to solve the issue by using compiz, the composite 3d-"windowmanager". That solution was a horrible kludge though, due to the fact that I didn't really want all those bells and whistles. all I wanted was the Meta+Mouse3 window-resizing!

Besides the new version of Ubuntu, Hardy Heron 8.04, doesn't let you change the keymapping for window-resizing at all!

To The Rescue – KDE!

After seeing oxygen and Plasma, two of my biggest gripes with KDE seem to be gone. The interface is overhauled and some of the pro's of GNOME has been injected into KDE. A simple, easily overviewed and non-confusing interface was basically all that was missing from KDE. Now the most competent Desktop for GNU/Linux systems has a nice clean interface. When the usable version of KDE4 (4.1) is shipped with ubuntu – I'll probably make the switch. From my old love; GNOME - to a new one; KDE.

Silver shoes

F

elicias new shoes! She is seriously proud of them and they were a part of a three for one (at skopunkten) offer costing totally less than 500 swedish crowns!

46 395:- phone bill

H

ave you ever had one of those days?.. That just seem surreal. A couple of days ago I recieved this slightly upsetting electronic invoice from my GSM-provider.

I have an unlimited data-plan called "fri surf" (free surf ed. trans) and apparently some software on my providers side have failed to put two and two together.

I'm waiting for an sms-reply as to what actually went wrong but the support staff solved the problem on the spot. So it's only a hypothetical problem now :^)

If you ever wondered how expensive it would be to use a cellular phone as your primary internet device at the standard rate of 15 SEK/MB... well now you know! Quite a contrast from the 100 SEK fee for "fri surf"!

Yeah!

Keep on rockin' in the big shoes