Computers

Yippie Kai-Yay!!!

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My laptops replacement (OEM) keyboard finally arrived; United States Postal Services, First Class.

Opened it up, and scratched my head, “Isn’t this supposed to have 1 keyboard holes?”, I unwrapped what’s left of my old one and confirmed it. A quick fitting with Dixie, showed the extra holes would rest freely, gotta love PC vendors. In order to get it to work, I needed to fold the ribbon to match the old one, and argue about getting the tabs under her bezel; but it finally works.

I feel like I just welcomed a love one home, from a really long trip…. and I can get work done again!!!!

I think, after I get my work done on Training Grounds #1/#2, I’ll probably be found with Dixie in my lap, and a smile on my face xD

Interesting finds

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%Windir%system32 (typically C:WINDOWSsystem32)

clipbrd.exe — ClipBook Viewer

Big question, can I actually use it for anything? (Grrr, vim is better); windows clipboard management out of box seems to suck, or require finding a program almost no ones ever heard of :

ftype — manages file associates

very bloody useful – no more need to invoke explorer.exe to play with them.

systeminfo — quick print useful data

Gotta remember this next time I’m working on a system; msinfo32 provides more info, but for some dang reason always seems to need start.exe or rhe run dialog to launch it. systeminfo gives a good first look, and is easier to grep.

Windows XP does have some useful changes from DOS 5/6 based releases, but I’ve never actually found a lot that isn’t in my MS-DOS reference >_>.

I can’t believe I am reduced to this…

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I finally decided to try something I’ve never bothered with before: X over SSH. Despite it’s pro’s and con’s, I actually do like the X Windows System for the most part, but rarely have time to go spelunking through X.Org.

I installed XMing on my Windows machine (sal1600), booted my laptop (dixie), and ran some tests using Xming.exe / PuTTY.exe – highly successful, and quiet a look on my face, when I saw gVim on FreeBSD, pop up on Windows XP!

Connection link is as follows:

WRT54G Router/Access Point  ->|
                              |  <- WPA Personal /w AES algorithm
dixie   -> ~54Mbps 802.11g  ->|
sal1600 -> ~54Mbps 802.11g  ->|

Personally, I would prefer Gigabit Ethernet connection and some good cat-6 cable, then drop the router for something a bit more direct… but I can’t lol.

dixie runs FreeBSD 7-STABLE; sal1600 runs Windows XP MCE (SP3).

A few quick batch files to make calling XMing easier then kicking XLaunch into ‘just what I want’:

==> xming-1win.bat <==
@echo off
cd /d P:NetworkRemoteXming

start /B .Xming.exe -clipboard -keyhook -lesspointer -unixkill -nowinkill -screen 0 1280x800@1 -swcursor

==> xming-multiwin.bat <==
@echo off
cd /d P:NetworkRemoteXming

start /B .Xming.exe -clipboard -keyhook -lesspointer -unixkill -nowinkill -swcursor -multiwindow

For SSH, I copied my setup in PuTTY for Dixie; enabling Compression and X tunneling, and bingo -> X11 over SSH. Launch Xming, run PuTTY -load Dixie-X11, and bingo! For the same of speed, I also changed PuTTY to using a faster encryption algorithm then what I normally use for a shell. Adding more fonts is quite a necessity, but rather limiting if you don’t like 12px fonts. I can’t help but wonder, if Xming would work with fonts installed on X.Org; only two ways I know to find out; grep X or test it. Note to self: double check memory of how X Servers handles fonts, against the documentation (it’s been awhile). IMHO running X this way is a liability, even over SSH, and a WLAN even worse. But it is quite nice to see, even under this kind of equipment, it’s actually quite usable. I so need a replacement keyboard for my laptop!!!

Going ballistic.

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Hmm… I wonder, if I yank off my monitors from the desk… scrounge around for an old USB2-PS/2 convertor; I could hook up the desktops keyboard to the laptop…. just maybe…. Mmm, maybe even use the desktops monitor as an external (will need to tweak BIOS/X)

Trade my speedy dual core, 2 gig of ram packing game machine for a little old laptop with crappy sempron, and a slow half gig of ram? To actually have a working environment I can _use_ and not want to hex-edit the executables into the the darkest levels of DooM (*cough* I hate windows *cough* as a work station *cough*).

Yeah, I’d do it in a heart beat….

And I mean both, lol.

Going out of my mind, Phase II.

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Grr…. 6+ hours in attempts to allievate the keyboard problem have resulted in a fouled up beyond repair keypad; this means either I find a replacement keyboard, or a replacement laptop.

What worries me is /finding/ a replacement. The laptops about 2 years old, and was “old” at the time, hence why it was on sale to make room for newer packages lol. Even at vendor-side prices, I should be able to afford a new keyboard module, if I can find one! Buying a new laptop, that’s a different story… sure as hell ain’t room for that in the budget lol… The fact that the most suitable laptop systems (refurb) have gone up in price, over $200 for the holidays don’t help either…

My working environment rules out the use of an external keyboard, mouse, or monitor; so any way you slice it, I’m screwed until I get a replacement keyboard. It’s only 0135R, and I’m already bored stiff. Played a few maps on [SAS] Proving Grounds #1, nice to see I can still work that games MP5 trigger like an artist for double taps ;-). Played a bit of the new maps on [SAS] Training Grounds #3, good maps and good practice — but I miss my Dixie 🙁

I’m used to being camped out with a laptop all night, terminal on one virtual desktop (with vim sessions), web browser and chat on the second, and the third on standby. Living with Windows until I can get a replacement….

IS THERE ANYTHING WORSE WORSE THEN TAAT!?

I miss my FreeBSD powered mobile work station….

NO, NO, NO NO, THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING !!!

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No wonder I’m typing things like ’tis’ so often lately, in vim where ‘h’ is the key to move te cursor one char to the left; I tried the command ‘7hr’, meaning move 7 char to the left and replace the letter under the cursor with the next typed key-stroke.

I had to type ‘7hhhhhhhhhhhhhh’ on my keyboard to get ONE H !!!!

Now wonder Control+H has been taking so long to backspace over crap….

My laptops h key is starting to ignore keypresses! I tested it in urxvt/screen, vim, firefox3, and xchat; then tried xev and using the system console… same results. This is horrible !!! I’m going to have to dismantle my laptops keyboard later and take a look…. This is _BAD_. I use my laptops keyboard a lot, so muc in fact that tere is no label left on my ‘N’ key, and the ‘D’ and ‘H’ meys labels are half faded out haha.

CRUD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t need many keys, only about 56 -> the average PC keyboard has 104 keys today, but finding 105/107 key models are not uncommon either. With a laptop, I basically demand 12 hours of typing comfort out of the 56 keys I need, same as any other keyboard I use….

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Linux distro family tree

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http://kde-files.org/CONTENT/content-files/46315-linux_timeline_poster_v1.1.png

Special thanks to MetaCosm of #vim

Never knew suse was descended from good ol’slackware hehe.

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Hmm, arguably I have my bad days, and then I have my worse days…

Tomorrow can’t get much worse in terms of work, I hope : Nearly 0500R, so no time for a proper days log; I really need to stop staying up so late.

At the moment, I’ve nearly got nail configured to my needs. The addition of macros and IMAP support is a real improvement over the old Berkeley Mail program. With a little more adjusting, I just might be able to dig into my back-log of mail sometime lol. So far, I only have one major complaint – no line editing at the prompt beyond the most basic level (provided by the terminal). That’ not really a problem though, it allows that old ed like terseness, it’s easy to keep the commands short.

Software, like physical tools should empower users to get work done efficiently, A little bit of learning how to use the program, is worth it when the reward is productive.

One thing I’ve also come to enjoy, is a useful trick for generating HTML manual pages. The mail/heirloom-mailx port installs as /usr/local/bin/mailx on FreeBSD, corresponding manual page being /usr/local/man/man1/mailx.1.gz. Because nail has a big manual page, it’s worth while to use a web browser or a text editor with tabs, in place of the usual $PAGER used by man.

$ zcat /usr/local/man/man1/mailx.1.gz | groff -Thtml -man > ~/mail.1.html
$ firefox3 ~/mail.1.html &

which is much more fun then my shell alias:

alias   man-nail="man -M /usr/local/man mailx"

PC-BSD, 3 years of PBI corruption continues!

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Username: mrhbit

Hi@

This is available in FreeBSD ports.

Here some screenshots.
—
http://www.ultimatestunts.nl/index.php?page=1&lang=en
—

regards Soeren

Username: mrhbit

Or a package for PC-BSD 7.x ?

Username: Gon

have done it. Gimme a week and i will approve it into pbidir.com

_________________
Gonzalo Martínez-Sanjuan Sánchez
PC-BSD Core Team Member

Problems with this:

  1. Getting a PBI approved is supposed to involve community testing, and review by those in charge of our PBI’safety (e.g. Gonzalo and a few others on the team page), which should also be impartial auditors – it’s called common sense.
  2. This would make Gonzalo a repeat offender in by-passing the normal approval procedures for his own PBIs, if he does what he says he will do.
  3. If he does as his record and choice of words suggests, this is a conflict of interest, which I deem unethical.
  4. This is not the first time. someone involved in the PC-BSD project has “bent” the PBIDir rules, or endorsed doing so… when they are supposed to be enforcing them, for everyone including themselves!
  5. In the past a number of PBI’s that have “skipped approval”, and have resulted in stinging users or violating the rules of the day (ref: Kris (Realplayer, Java, BSD4Win), Charles (Firefox, Thunderbird), Gonzalo (Gnome, …)), or just had half assed [lack of] testing that didn’t catch obvious problems (ref: the 2nd Amarok PBI, Gnome 2). Considering the state of Documentation (how many general users know how to extract PBI w/o install, or how to reach the scripts before they are run), users will not see the code executed when they install a PBI (and most woulnd’t understand it, or the implications), which IMHO is a major security risk — unaudited PBI.

Is it a wonder, that I never send patches to these people… I wouldn’t want my name associated with PC-BSD in any such capacity, period and end of quote. I remember I once compiled a list of the PC-BSD projects deficiencies, and took it up with one of the team members…. That was quite a while ago now; but no actual changes seem to have occured, beyond referencing revisions in the changelog for 7.0.1.

I think, if Gonzalo doesn’t go by the book, maybe I will just happen to go public with them this time — and expand the list!

I’ve had about enough of watching this chicken shit project. I may have mellowed in my increasing age, but not that far just yet.

Miscellaneous ponderings

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/bin/ed isn’t so bad after all, but hey… knowing how to use ex, vi, and vim helps lol.

The old Berkeley mail interface is very interesting, but seems to lack mutts infinite configuration. Most of the time, I just use webmail. Google Chrome (Windows) or some thing from $BROWSER (*nix) is always open, so typically use that; but some times I do like to work from my terminal hehe. It even looks like the nail/heirlom-mailx program might add the stuff I desire.

TODO: inhale /usr/share/doc/usd/07.Mail (the reference manual), inhale nail documentation.