geek's hut - Free and Open Source Software blog

dual-booting debian

2011-05-17T12:22:00.006+03:00

here's my story of migrating the existing archlinux 32bit system to dual-boot with debian squeeze 64bit, and using the debian for couple of days.i wrote the post almost a week ago, but didn't have time to edit and publish it.introi'm fairly experienced linux user, been using it on my desktop since 2003, and tried many linux distros and other unix oses before - slackware, redhat, fedora, gentoo,

arch linux upgrades to gnome3 - signal to migrate to another distro

2011-05-01T00:07:00.002+03:00

http://www.archlinux.org/news/gnome3-in-extra/Thanks, Arch developers.it was a great ride, but now it's time for me too look for another distro."pulseaudio is now required to run the GNOME desktop" -- no, thanks.

My Gtk3 Wishlist

2010-02-08T12:51:00.003+02:00

it's a trend these days, so here's mine:* make it possible to draw any part of any standard widget, in any of its possible state, into GdkDrawable without having actual widget of that type (for implementing custom widgets), without having to render the widget into offscreen buffer, reading results back, etc. that means: GtkTreeView header widget, individual tabs from GtkNotebook, etc* docking --

deadbeef 0.2.0 is out!

2009-09-09T16:42:00.002+03:00

it got plugins, APE playback, improved cuesheet support, and lots more.check http://deadbeef.sf.net for details and download

0xDeaDBeeF

2009-08-21T09:28:00.005+03:00

DeaDBeeF music player for GNU/Linux reached it's 1st alpha release. homepage: http://deadbeef.sf.net. spread the word!

Aurora gtk engine performance patch

2009-03-04T22:26:00.004+02:00

let me start with benchmarking results (gtkperf):1. all tests, 100 runs:aurora-unpatched: 15.58xfce-saltlake: 10.73aurora-patched: 13.012. GtkComboBox test, 1000 runs:aurora-unpatched: 19.52xfce-saltlake: 6.11aurora-patched: 8.81as you see, here we have more than 2x speed improvement in widget rendering (which is actually much more than that, because benchmarking always lie)the only drawback is

short story about macosx user

2009-02-17T11:37:00.004+02:00

typical attitude of mac users:google-search for mplayerskip this strange .hu website (why the hell the videoplayer could be hosted on hungarian site, rightz0r?..)download macosx powerpc build of mplayer-cvs dated back to 2005 (from some warez site, of course)get surprised it doesn't need a crack (viva hax0rz! it must be they properly patched it before packaging!)attempt to play fullhd 1080p 60fps

about personal note taking

2009-02-03T16:21:00.006+02:00

i'm always looking into improving my note taking.i like clean interface, simple file format, wiki-like approach, cross-platform compatibility on windows and linux (so that i can take notes at work too), preferably desktop-app (as opposed to web-app), stability, proper undo, version control, opensource.here's a short overview of some stuff that i like1. zim wikithis is my personal favorite for

small psynth update

2009-01-11T23:56:00.007+02:00

my softsynth got some new interesting upgrades, so sharing them to everyone interested (if any :)1. moved from openal to sdl for "standalone" sound playbackthis fixed a lot of problems, and reduced amount of work to get stuff done2. added possibility to apply filters per-channel (as opposed to per-voice)e.g. delay fx can benefit from this a lot in terms of cpu usage.3. implemented Tracker and

cool mplayer hints

2008-12-29T17:43:00.003+02:00

while being sick, i'm watching movies from my laptop using kinda slow wireless connection and NFS (network file system), and i had 2 significant problems. both solved with the best video player in the world, mplayer.1. since connection speed is barely enough for watching movies, skipping occures quite frequently.-cache 8192 option increases cache (preload buffer) size. skipping is gone

get netcfg + dhcp back to work in current arch linux

2008-10-15T23:40:00.005+03:00

it is not a secret, that netcfg2 configurations using dhcp don't currently work in Arch Linux because new version of dhcpcd doesn't support -q switchfix is quite easy:edit file /usr/lib/network/ethernet.subrfind all strings running dhcpcd, and wipe "-q" option out.

colorful debug output to standard/error output with vim aid

2008-09-22T13:32:00.007+03:00

it's really very simple. we all know that we can colorize our console output using ANSI escape sequencesbut it's not very useful to remember and type them each time when we wanna change colors.for example, if we want red text, we need something like this:printf ("\033[0;31mhello\033[37;0m\n");with some little help of vim we can make this easier:printf ("\redhello\white");where \red and \white are

open file in visual studio from vim

2008-08-27T13:09:00.004+03:00

quick and dirty way to open file in VS from vim using hotkey(assuming you're running cygwin+vim)add following to your vimrcnmap :!/cygdrive/c/Program\ Files/Microsoft\ Visual\ Studio\ 8/Common7/IDE/devenv.exe /Edit %

small report on terminal apps usability on windows

2008-07-10T15:51:00.004+03:00

dedicated to people forced to use windows at work, who prefer unix way of lifehere's a list of terminals that i tried to use on windows during some time (not less than 1 week), and some comments1. cmd.exestandard, always available, though very crippled and almost uselessit's the only way to run apps making use of win32 console APIs (e.g. far manager)also take a look at console22. console2i'd call

perforce making a diff

2008-06-19T11:06:00.004+03:00

after breaking a daily build by committing a change that was missing some files, i started to look for a way to find changed non-checked out files.surprisingly, the way to detect it is just the same as in most source control systems - using 'diff' commandit's only available from command line, as far as i see.so to see what's changed, run "p4 diff -du -sl".-du stands for "tell diff to use unified

hints on using vim for larger projects

2008-06-11T14:47:00.010+03:00

run ctags with --extra=+fso you'll have additional feature of searching files across entire project, with tab completion on filenames, etc (e.g. using :tag command)the only disadvantage here is that last editing position of the file, opened with :tag, will not be preserved.in general, that's what you'd get using alt+shift+O from visual studio with visual assist x addon.you should definitely

many cool stuff for linux users on windows

2008-05-22T15:55:00.003+03:00

just a link with a lot of cool stuff

256-color urxvt on cygwin

2008-05-18T12:19:00.002+03:00

ok, now i'm working in different company, under different os (guess it's name), and i want all my stuff back. here's how it's done..1. run cygwin's setup.exe, install wget, make, gcc, g++, autoconf, x11, gtk2, expat, and respective devel packages.dependencies are handled automatically.cygwin's version of urxvt isn't patched to support 256 colors, so do not install it2. run bash, and download

adding 256 color support to urxvt on gentoo

2008-04-18T14:44:00.006+03:00

yes, 256-color vim colorschemes are actually usable with urxvt (e.g. railcasts)here's how:copy rxvt-unicode ebuild and files to your portage overlaydownload rxvt-unicode tarball (i've used 9.02): emerge -f rxvt-unicodeextract doc/urxvt-8.2-256color.patch from tarball, and place it to x11-terms/rxvt-unicode/files/ subdirectorycreate manifest: ebuild rxvt-unicode-9.02.ebuild digestadd "autotools"

Setting up urxvt for vim

2008-04-17T17:23:00.002+03:00

urxvt is quite nice at being xterm-compatible, but it lacks proper C-Left and C-Right handling in vim (esc-sequences are different from xterm).fix is quite simple. just add following lines to your X-resources file:URxvt.keysym.C-Left: \033[1;5DURxvt.keysym.C-Right: \033[1;5Cand merge it (i use ~/.Xdefaults):xrdb -merge ~/.Xdefaultsdone!

[ext.js] drop-in solution for automatic ajax error handling

2008-04-16T14:36:00.005+03:00

here's the new (experimental) code used in our system for handling ajax connection errors.it's something like the one used by gmail - when it experiences connection problems, small banner pops up, saying that there's no connection to server, etc.this script does following:when response status is not 200 (OK), banner with error message pops up, than script starts to poll server every 4 seconds (

bigger and nicer fonts in X11, firefox, gtk, etc

2008-04-04T18:06:00.010+03:00

i finally got some satisfying results with fonts on my desktop, and thought to share some hints.it works well for LCD displays, not CRT.i have 96 dpi display, like most of us, though i think this info will be even more helpful for those having 120+ dpi screens.what i want:smooth antialiased fonts, something like in mac os x, large enough to read comfortably, with subpixel rendering.good

pypanel volume control

2008-02-29T12:26:00.008+02:00

not long ago i tried to use xfce4, and i really disliked that thunar depends on gnome libs for some stuff.so i started to think about moving to another DE or even WM.i wanted really fast and light one.so now i'm trying OpenBox.it doesn't have own panel, so i use pypanel.the only thing i dislike about it is the lack of volume control.so i wrote my own.here's the patch against pypanel-2.4: http://

my gnome applets got new home

2008-02-04T17:31:00.000+02:00

color picker and calculator applets source code is now hosted on google pages, herealso, i finally moved to xfce4, since news tell us that gnome moves towards .net/mono, and i definitely don't want any of that kind of crap on my PCs.aforementioned applets still can be used using xfce4-xfapplet package.enjoy!

PSynth

2007-12-14T23:21:00.000+02:00

i've stopped playing WoW, and got some spare time to work on PSynth again.so i added low pass filter, rearranged GUI and synthesis process, and added delay effect support.now i'm going to continue adding more features, and i gonna need more hands.if there are any experienced developers reading this, who are proficient in C and with some knowledge in GTK2, DSP, OpenAL, etc. - you are welcome to

firefox fails to render text properly

2007-12-07T14:59:00.000+02:00

i noticed recently, that on some pages text containing 'fi' letters looks garbled. so i decided to check it and try to figure out what's wrong.my 1st thought was that's a freetype vs dejavu sans problem, but creating simple repro proved it wrong - it rendered properly.so i've found a bad looking web page, and checked it's source. it was created using msword (contained Mso*** styles, etc), and the

ext 2.0 + jscalendar

2007-11-22T14:50:00.000+02:00

ext 2.0 (extjs.org) is still RC, and i'm in the process of porting our ext1.1 code.i tried to run jscalendar (http://www.dynarch.com/projects/calendar), and it now works (we used some evil hacks based on extjs datepicker widget with 1.1).so i decided to do ext2.0 widget using jscalendar, and here's a result.it only supports single datetime format "Y-m-d h:i A" or "%Y-%m-%d %l:%M %p" (can be

vim 7.1 has broken perl syntax highlighting

2007-08-22T20:38:00.000+03:00

caution to those [auto]upgrading.perl highlighting is broken, though using old syntax files is fine.i just copied old one to ~/.vim/syntax/perl.vim

color-picker panel applet for GNOME2

2007-08-13T21:44:00.000+03:00

finally, it is therehttp://plg.lrn.ru/uploads/wpicker-applet-0.1.tar.gzyou'll need python and pygtk installed, as well as GNOME2there's also a calculator applet:http://plg.lrn.ru/uploads/wcalc-applet-0.1.tar.gzfeedback is welcome!

auto-reconnecting lost DSL connection

2007-05-24T18:02:00.002+03:00

Assuming you're using rp-pppoe, and have perl and ifconfig installed.At start, configure your pppoe connection using usual pppoe-setupNow you'll need 3 files:1. /etc/ppp/pppoe-params (remove all "# this line must be empty", they really must be empty lines)# this line must be empty# this line must be empty# this line must be emptyserveryour_passwordyour_password0y# this line must be empty2.

colorpicker in form of xfce4 panel plugin

2007-05-24T11:03:00.000+03:00

I'm trying to migrate to xfce4 from kde.The most important feature I miss is color picker plugin (similar to kcoloredit applet in kde).Neither xfce4, nor gnome have that.Going to roll my own. It should be easy, since I only need to pick screen color and put it to clipboard. Picking history could be nice, but I can live without it.UPD: moved back to KDE, xfce4 is very unstable for me.

google apps setup with plesk

2007-04-13T12:20:00.000+03:00

we moved to google apps for mail recently, so i gonna share some thoughts about how to do it with godaddy account.1st of all, you need to change your MX records for each of your domains.it is done via plesk quite easily. navigate to domains section, click on domain, then dns, delete existing MX records, then add google's ones.they must specify yourdomain.com in the "Host" field (not

nice set of VIM tips for perl programmers

2007-03-12T15:25:00.000+02:00

http://mamchenkov.net/wordpress/2004/05/10/vim-for-perl-developers/3/pretty old, but still useful onei partially changed my vim config after reading it, and while most of the tips were useless for me, article is worth to be mentioned.i've added "set nowrap", but ignored syntax hilighting, indentation, completion, and windows/buffers sections 'cause i'm not really a vim noob, and the sections are

x11-themes/crystal

2007-01-28T10:08:00.000+02:00

at last! i used KDE for around 1.5 years now, and one of the most annoying things was it's poor choice of default windecs. the only thing that is worse is what used in wingdows xp by default :)now i found the windec which suits me well, and makes kde to feel more like fvwm2, - it is Crystal.it is native kde-3.x windec, it is in portage, and it's highly configurable.now i got very slim 17px

my c650 gone mad :)

2007-01-26T14:49:00.000+02:00

some song started to play on last.fm which repeatedly used the samples which are turnon/off melodies on my c650 phone, so i started to look at my phone worrying why it started to turn on and off :)funny!unfortunately, i forgot to record track name :(

why php coders suck: part II

2007-01-26T13:53:00.000+02:00

in previous post i wrote about how php coders handle time values.now i gonna tell you how they handle some other values.ok, here we go.we have another generated by some

plans for the evening

2007-01-24T17:33:00.000+02:00

my irc bot lacks autoreconnect feature, so the number one today is to add this feature. i can't otherwise figure out my home router's [dynamic] ip address from work when bot disconnects due to connection problems :)no, i don't want to use dyndns. at least, until i replace my old gnu/linux router with new wireless-adsl-all-in-one thingie (which i already have, but didn't set it up fully)btw,

konqueror video thumbnails and some gentoo updating thoughts

2007-01-22T10:33:00.000+02:00

yesterday i finished updating one of my gentoo boxes after ~2 months (through emerge -uD world).it required hand-tweaking 2 times.udev update. one needs to do "rm -rf /etc/udev" before doing "emerge udev" in order to get rid of all those error messages during boot;dbus update. it is due to my config: i don't have ~x86 in /etc/make.conf, but still have many packages listed with it in /etc/portage/

xulrunner

2007-01-16T23:40:00.000+02:00

i'm looking into xptoolkit (xpfe) as a platform for my next project and for a long time i failed to find any introductory material for it.finally, i managed to find out that in order to create standalone apps using xptoolkit one needs to use XULRunner app.some tutorial links:http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/XULRunnerhttp://www.xulplanet.com/tutorials/xultu/intro.htmlhttp://

nfs music download

2007-01-13T23:22:00.000+02:00

found nice blog which allows to download many songs from nfs1-5 (thru bittorrent)downloading now :)

bugzilla dark blue skin

2007-01-12T12:31:00.000+02:00

just moved from my old livejournal account, so the first thing i gonna do is transfer my last post here and see how it works :)default bugzilla style is awful, so i created something that fits my needs.here's a shot:i gonna put it on the web when i'll find appropriate place.