Does anyone know if the conflicts between ACPI and USB have been fixed yet? Basically, if ACPI is enabled in the kernel, it will mess with USB--for instance, my USB mouse will suddenly stop working (no errors in/var/log/messages or syslog) and won't work again until I 'rmmod ohci_hcd' and modprobe it back again. My laptop (which is currently running -test8) has this problem, and it is very annoying (although at least APM works).
You do realize that KDE actually has a translation of Esperanto? kde-i18n-esperanto has been available at least since the 2.x days.
Someone wanted to make a Klingon i18n of KDE, but the developers said that they wouldn't include it with the official distribution. I'm not sure if it's still being developed independently or not. Try the mailing list if you're interested.
Excellent. Finding one of these is worth zillions of galaxies, quasars, and the like.
Even if it doesn't have liquid water, gasious oxygen, or solid land, then it can still focus as the fulcrum of our local jump point.
Surely you jest. Local? Pray tell, how is 7.8 lightyears local? Well, on a galactic scale, it may be local, but from the viewpoint of space travel, it's probably further than we'll ever get, at least for another couple generations, and that's assuming we get lucky. Alpha Centauri is roughly a little more than half that distance. The article includes a rather nice little diagram illustrating the three nearest stars (although it's rather misleading to make Sol so large, but hey, what can you do?) So for a gravity-assisted swing-by, this is definitely out of the question for a good long time.
Actually, I like case-sensitivity. Directories begin with a capital letter, files with a lower case. ls then sorts everything out so that capitals (directories) are listed first, and not sprinkled in with the files. Very nice.
I say, "Why not?" I think this is a great idea; I'm all for a better directory structure. Just because the present system has been around for 30+ years doesn't mean that we shouldn't take a second look at it and see if it can't be improved.
Now would anyone care to guess how many knee-jerk posts there will be, like "if you like a sane directory hierarchy, use OS X, ya weenie!" or "if it's not broke, don't fix it!" To which I respond, where do you keep your Mozilla plugins?
/usr/share/plugins
/usr/share/netscape/plugins
/usr/share/mozilla/plugins
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
/usr/lib/mozilla/1.3a/plugins
/usr/lib/mozilla/1.3/plugins
/opt/netscape/plugins
/opt/mozilla/plugins
/usr/local/mozilla/plugins
ad naseum...
Much applause to the guys who were willing to think a little more critically about what we can do to make Linux just a little better.
Sorry, I can't confirm that you can assign multiple characters to a single key. Never tried it. I guess you'll just have to experiment! First, get it working to your liking with single characters, then try adding another character to a key. If it is possible to add two or more characters together, I imagine that you wouldn't separate them at all, but rather just string them together. Please post your results; I'm curious to find out how it works.
If you're using KDE, then your best bet (from what it sounds like) is to use khotkeys. That way, you won't need to mess around with X keyboard files, which isn't something you want to make a mistake with if you're fairly new to Linux.:) Khotkeys will be included in KDE 3.2; why it wasn't included earlier, I don't know. It supports borth inserting strings and running programs (handy for small shell scripts). The only time this would not be ideal is when you want to input a lot of macros or special characters at a time. In which case, here are the (untested) instructions for modifying your X layout (for KDE, although the general procedure is the same for GNOME; for plain window managers, you'll need to Google for specifics):
Don't do this unless you've made backup and know how to undo any mistakes! You may make typing exceedingly difficult in X if you make a mistake. Also note that I have not tried these particular steps; something similar, yes, but I'm working from memory here.
First, choose a keyboard layout that you are likely never to use. Like, say Albanian (al). In KDE, go Control Panel -> Accessability -> Keyboard layout, select "Enable keyboard layouts", and select "Albanian" from the list of additional layouts.
Next, assign a key to switch keyboard layouts. In KDE, this is in the Control Panel, under Accessability -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Switch to Next Keyboard Layout.
You may need to restart KDE in order for the changes to take effect.
Next, edit the Albanian keymap (found in/etc/X11/xkb/symbols/al) as root. It doesn't look as though the Albanian keymap includes anything for the number pad (which means that it just defaults to the basic definitions), so you'll have to add the keypad in. Look in/etc/X11/xkb/keycodes/xfree86 for the line <NMLK> = 77;; it, and everything below it until <KPDL> = 91; refers to the keypad. You should be bright enough to figure out which lines map to which keys. Add these lines to the Albanian map, then conform it to look like the rest of the keymap. This means removing the numbers, adding in the "[" and "]", and adding the keysymbol that you want displayed (see the list at/usr/X11R6/include/X11/keysymdef.h).
You already have everything you need if you run Linux or any other *nix: just remap your current keyboard. For example, you can make a keyboard map of the number pad with whatever macro you want, and then toggle between the regular keypad and the macro keypad with a rarely-used button, like PrintScreen or Scroll Lock.
It died two years ago when TrollTech GPL'ed Qt. So yes, everyone has forgotten about it. Quite frankly, there's no need for it. Although as I understand it, someone has started a project to port the GPL'd version of QT from *nix to Windows (the Windows version of QT is under a "non-commercial" license), but this is something entirely different.
It's nice to see one industrialized nation start looking at renewable energy. (I've heard that Germany has already started a similar program--would someone more knowledgeable care to comment?) It would certainly be nice if the US started getting serious about reducing our dependency on fossil fuels. And started promoting more environmentally friendly lifestyles, rather than give tax-breaks for SUVs.
In this case, the degree of separation between a scripting language and a compiling language is pretty minimal. Typing 'make' at the end really doesn't add any more complexity. It's not like you need a configure script or have to work out the dependancies; as long as you have gkrellm-devel, you are good to go.
Or, you could wait a while. If this catches on big, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Linux version be developed. After all, it is just XML + JavaScript. This might fit well with KDE (since it starts with a 'K' and KDE has khtml built in:). Who knows.
I'm going to be cynical, however, and say that despite the eye candy, the creative level of the apps aren't going to rise above the high-water mark set by, say, dockapps. In other words, expect to see lots of very pretty news tickers, clocks, system monitors, and the like, but nothing really new AND useful. (I have to admit, the widget that monitors the security status of the nation is cute and original, but not exactly useful.) :Peter
Well, for most of what you want, there's gkrellm; it's been a while since I've played with making a gkrellm plugin, but I found it fairly easy (I'm not a C guy, but there's already a lot of plugins that you can borrow from) and the API is well documented. It even has a "server" program for remote monitoring. It also runs on Windows now, and of course it works in OSX as well. :Peter
Whoa, dude, take a chill pill. Settle down. I'm not attacking the concept--I'm asking for people's opinions on what future they see for tiny apps. As I said before, the contributed Konfabulator apps are rapidly falling into the old pattern established by dockapps; i.e., clocks, system monitors, and the like. What I want to know is if anyone can envision other uses for tiny apps that hasn't already been done to death. I'm looking for creative use of the tiny app paradigm that offers a fresh perspective on the idea. Think you can handle that? :Peter
This is actually a question I've been wondering about for a couple of months: what future is there in dockapps/little apps? I just finished browsing Konfabulator's gallery of apps, and most of my suspicions were confirmed. Most of the apps are only of marginal utility, and already there's a lot of duplication. In other words, it's already beginning to look like the Dockapp Warehouse. All that Konfabulator has done is "lowered" the bar for making hundreds of little apps--it's easier to make pretty eye candy that does the same as all the other eye candy.
Ok, I'm trying to come to a point here. Several posts have mentioned a couple of "one-off" apps, apps that were whipped out to meet a specific need, but aren't likely to be useful to anyone other than the creator. Well, that's cool, but I'm more interested in the general future of little apps. Have all the useful things already been done? Are there any functional gaps that could be filled with little apps? We're already up to our necks with clocks, CPU monitors, memory monitors, weather monitors, and news tickers--what's a new area that dockapps/little apps can branch into? :Peter
I would also encourage you to go to your local LUG (if you've got one) and ask for a couple of knowledgable people to volunteer their time. Bring them and a spare computer to the next board meeting and do a presentation. Make the point that you have both local (the LUG) and international support for free software that will save them a bundle, starting right now. :Peter
An "Ask Slashdot" that actually went to the source for the answer first, without the usually bad/wrong/pointless pontificating that normally goes along with it. How long can such a good thing last, I wonder. :Peter
Unfortunately the 'ours' in that phrase essentially means 'our gang here in the clubhouse.' It's inherently counter-culture, adopts the old 'us and them' mentality from the 'New Left' era. You know, like that old fart handing out leaflets on the campus mall who always capitalizes it when he writes or says 'Big Business.'
On the contrary, the GPL is explicitly non-exclusionary. Literally anybody can be in "our gang," even Microsoft (which does in fact sell GPL'ed software). It's counter-culture only because for the last twenty plus years the culture has been centered around the phrase, "What's mine stays mine." It used to be the other way around; see Bill Gates' letter to the hobbyists who were freely distributing his version of BASIC. At that time, Gates and co. were the counter-culturists.
That level of idealism is fine while your dad is paying the tuition and kicking in half of the money to pay your room rent.
Or when IBM and HP learn that they too can make billions on FOSS? "Big Business" is learning that it can be in their best interest to support FOSS developers; see, for instance, IBM's support for the Linux kernel development. :Peter
I think a lot of young developers have a habit of slapping a GPL on their software without really thinking about the consequences.
While I do not really consider myself either young or much of a developer, I think most people have a very good idea of what's at the heart of the GPL: "What was mine is now ours. Do whatever you like with it, except please keep it ours." That's what I like about the GPL. It profits both the developer and the user; users are free to do whatever they like with it, so long as it remains "ours," and the developers benefit from improvements that others contribute. It's sharing at its best, because no one party can keep it all to themselves.
What's wrong with KDE's (and QT's) GPL license? Or are we going to get into that silly "LGPL is better than GPL" argument? It's possible (because of QT's dual license) to produce closed-source software, which is what theKompany has done. Or have I been trolled?
Python is an amazing scripting language--I'm just wondering when gcc will be able to compile it!:) (Yes, I know about psyco.) For the next year, one thing I would like to see is either Python switching to wxPython for GUI stuff, or improving tkinter so that it isn't so...1996ish. (On the other hand, wxPython isn't quite as intuitive as pyQT, but isn't hampered by the licensing issue on the Windows side of things.) Also, what are the plans for Python 3+? Is there any site listing future plans, apart from the 2.3 release?
I take back what I said--ok, so the RIAA may not have the brightest lightbulbs, but they can outsource.
BUT... Unless I am mistaken (already happened once today), this is just a buffer exploit. By the end of the work day, there should be patches for mpg123, xmms, and any other open source mp3 player affected. Then what is the RIAA going to do? Bang its collective shoe on the table and scream "Kill them! Kill them!"?
Agreed. After all, the RIAA can't even prevent their own web page from getting hacked. Obviously, we are not dealing with the brightest lightbulbs in the box. The effort and amount of work, not to mention sheer skill, in worming an international network without detection does not seem to match the RIAA's skill set.
Just out of curiousity, how much work is involved in translating, say, KDE? Looking at the stats for translation status in the KDE GUI, it looks as though there are about 53,300 phrases (?) that need to be translated into any given language. Now, my question is, how many of those are repeats? For instance, just think of how many occurences of "File" there would be. Also, how long (on average) does it take to translate KDE? If you have someone who is fluent in both English and Tibetan (I pick Tibetan because a.) it has a cool script and b.) no one has committed any translations for it), how long would it take for a single person to do the job?
Comments from GNOME knowledable people is also welcome--does GNOME have a similar page of statistics on translations as KDE?
Looks like a cloud formation. There are several roundish clouds elsewhere in the formation. Or maybe it was something put up by Taco Bell--if the shadow had crossed it, everyone in America would have gotten a free taco! Oh, wait, that was something else with Mir.:) :Peter
Slashdot Mirror
Does anyone know if the conflicts between ACPI and USB have been fixed yet? Basically, if ACPI is enabled in the kernel, it will mess with USB--for instance, my USB mouse will suddenly stop working (no errors in /var/log/messages or syslog) and won't work again until I 'rmmod ohci_hcd' and modprobe it back again. My laptop (which is currently running -test8) has this problem, and it is very annoying (although at least APM works).
You do realize that KDE actually has a translation of Esperanto? kde-i18n-esperanto has been available at least since the 2.x days. Someone wanted to make a Klingon i18n of KDE, but the developers said that they wouldn't include it with the official distribution. I'm not sure if it's still being developed independently or not. Try the mailing list if you're interested.
Actually, I like case-sensitivity. Directories begin with a capital letter, files with a lower case. ls then sorts everything out so that capitals (directories) are listed first, and not sprinkled in with the files. Very nice.
Now would anyone care to guess how many knee-jerk posts there will be, like "if you like a sane directory hierarchy, use OS X, ya weenie!" or "if it's not broke, don't fix it!" To which I respond, where do you keep your Mozilla plugins?
Much applause to the guys who were willing to think a little more critically about what we can do to make Linux just a little better.
What do you think this is, Kuro5hin? :)
Sorry, I can't confirm that you can assign multiple characters to a single key. Never tried it. I guess you'll just have to experiment! First, get it working to your liking with single characters, then try adding another character to a key. If it is possible to add two or more characters together, I imagine that you wouldn't separate them at all, but rather just string them together. Please post your results; I'm curious to find out how it works.
:Peter
- Don't do this unless you've made backup and know how to undo any mistakes! You may make typing exceedingly difficult in X if you make a mistake. Also note that I have not tried these particular steps; something similar, yes, but I'm working from memory here.
- First, choose a keyboard layout that you are likely never to use. Like, say Albanian (al). In KDE, go Control Panel -> Accessability -> Keyboard layout, select "Enable keyboard layouts", and select "Albanian" from the list of additional layouts.
- Next, assign a key to switch keyboard layouts. In KDE, this is in the Control Panel, under Accessability -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Switch to Next Keyboard Layout.
- You may need to restart KDE in order for the changes to take effect.
- Next, edit the Albanian keymap (found in
/etc/X11/xkb/symbols/al) as root. It doesn't look as though the Albanian keymap includes anything for the number pad (which means that it just defaults to the basic definitions), so you'll have to add the keypad in. Look in /etc/X11/xkb/keycodes/xfree86 for the line <NMLK> = 77;; it, and everything below it until <KPDL> = 91; refers to the keypad. You should be bright enough to figure out which lines map to which keys. Add these lines to the Albanian map, then conform it to look like the rest of the keymap. This means removing the numbers, adding in the "[" and "]", and adding the keysymbol that you want displayed (see the list at /usr/X11R6/include/X11/keysymdef.h).
- Restart X, cross your fingers, and play away!
Have fun,You already have everything you need if you run Linux or any other *nix: just remap your current keyboard. For example, you can make a keyboard map of the number pad with whatever macro you want, and then toggle between the regular keypad and the macro keypad with a rarely-used button, like PrintScreen or Scroll Lock.
:Peter
It died two years ago when TrollTech GPL'ed Qt. So yes, everyone has forgotten about it. Quite frankly, there's no need for it. Although as I understand it, someone has started a project to port the GPL'd version of QT from *nix to Windows (the Windows version of QT is under a "non-commercial" license), but this is something entirely different.
:Peter
It's nice to see one industrialized nation start looking at renewable energy. (I've heard that Germany has already started a similar program--would someone more knowledgeable care to comment?) It would certainly be nice if the US started getting serious about reducing our dependency on fossil fuels. And started promoting more environmentally friendly lifestyles, rather than give tax-breaks for SUVs.
:Peter
In this case, the degree of separation between a scripting language and a compiling language is pretty minimal. Typing 'make' at the end really doesn't add any more complexity. It's not like you need a configure script or have to work out the dependancies; as long as you have gkrellm-devel, you are good to go.
:). Who knows.
:Peter
Or, you could wait a while. If this catches on big, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Linux version be developed. After all, it is just XML + JavaScript. This might fit well with KDE (since it starts with a 'K' and KDE has khtml built in
I'm going to be cynical, however, and say that despite the eye candy, the creative level of the apps aren't going to rise above the high-water mark set by, say, dockapps. In other words, expect to see lots of very pretty news tickers, clocks, system monitors, and the like, but nothing really new AND useful. (I have to admit, the widget that monitors the security status of the nation is cute and original, but not exactly useful.)
Well, for most of what you want, there's gkrellm; it's been a while since I've played with making a gkrellm plugin, but I found it fairly easy (I'm not a C guy, but there's already a lot of plugins that you can borrow from) and the API is well documented. It even has a "server" program for remote monitoring. It also runs on Windows now, and of course it works in OSX as well.
:Peter
Whoa, dude, take a chill pill. Settle down. I'm not attacking the concept--I'm asking for people's opinions on what future they see for tiny apps. As I said before, the contributed Konfabulator apps are rapidly falling into the old pattern established by dockapps; i.e., clocks, system monitors, and the like. What I want to know is if anyone can envision other uses for tiny apps that hasn't already been done to death. I'm looking for creative use of the tiny app paradigm that offers a fresh perspective on the idea. Think you can handle that?
:Peter
This is actually a question I've been wondering about for a couple of months: what future is there in dockapps/little apps? I just finished browsing Konfabulator's gallery of apps, and most of my suspicions were confirmed. Most of the apps are only of marginal utility, and already there's a lot of duplication. In other words, it's already beginning to look like the Dockapp Warehouse. All that Konfabulator has done is "lowered" the bar for making hundreds of little apps--it's easier to make pretty eye candy that does the same as all the other eye candy.
:Peter
Ok, I'm trying to come to a point here. Several posts have mentioned a couple of "one-off" apps, apps that were whipped out to meet a specific need, but aren't likely to be useful to anyone other than the creator. Well, that's cool, but I'm more interested in the general future of little apps. Have all the useful things already been done? Are there any functional gaps that could be filled with little apps? We're already up to our necks with clocks, CPU monitors, memory monitors, weather monitors, and news tickers--what's a new area that dockapps/little apps can branch into?
I would also encourage you to go to your local LUG (if you've got one) and ask for a couple of knowledgable people to volunteer their time. Bring them and a spare computer to the next board meeting and do a presentation. Make the point that you have both local (the LUG) and international support for free software that will save them a bundle, starting right now.
:Peter
An "Ask Slashdot" that actually went to the source for the answer first, without the usually bad/wrong/pointless pontificating that normally goes along with it. How long can such a good thing last, I wonder.
:Peter
On the contrary, the GPL is explicitly non-exclusionary. Literally anybody can be in "our gang," even Microsoft (which does in fact sell GPL'ed software). It's counter-culture only because for the last twenty plus years the culture has been centered around the phrase, "What's mine stays mine." It used to be the other way around; see Bill Gates' letter to the hobbyists who were freely distributing his version of BASIC. At that time, Gates and co. were the counter-culturists.
Or when IBM and HP learn that they too can make billions on FOSS? "Big Business" is learning that it can be in their best interest to support FOSS developers; see, for instance, IBM's support for the Linux kernel development.
While I do not really consider myself either young or much of a developer, I think most people have a very good idea of what's at the heart of the GPL: "What was mine is now ours. Do whatever you like with it, except please keep it ours." That's what I like about the GPL. It profits both the developer and the user; users are free to do whatever they like with it, so long as it remains "ours," and the developers benefit from improvements that others contribute. It's sharing at its best, because no one party can keep it all to themselves.
What's wrong with KDE's (and QT's) GPL license? Or are we going to get into that silly "LGPL is better than GPL" argument? It's possible (because of QT's dual license) to produce closed-source software, which is what theKompany has done. Or have I been trolled?
:Peter
Python is an amazing scripting language--I'm just wondering when gcc will be able to compile it! :) (Yes, I know about psyco.) For the next year, one thing I would like to see is either Python switching to wxPython for GUI stuff, or improving tkinter so that it isn't so...1996ish. (On the other hand, wxPython isn't quite as intuitive as pyQT, but isn't hampered by the licensing issue on the Windows side of things.) Also, what are the plans for Python 3+? Is there any site listing future plans, apart from the 2.3 release?
:Peter
I take back what I said--ok, so the RIAA may not have the brightest lightbulbs, but they can outsource.
:Peter
BUT...
Unless I am mistaken (already happened once today), this is just a buffer exploit. By the end of the work day, there should be patches for mpg123, xmms, and any other open source mp3 player affected. Then what is the RIAA going to do? Bang its collective shoe on the table and scream "Kill them! Kill them!"?
Agreed. After all, the RIAA can't even prevent their own web page from getting hacked. Obviously, we are not dealing with the brightest lightbulbs in the box. The effort and amount of work, not to mention sheer skill, in worming an international network without detection does not seem to match the RIAA's skill set.
:Peter
Hmm...the RIAA webpage is still down. Amusing.
Comments from GNOME knowledable people is also welcome--does GNOME have a similar page of statistics on translations as KDE?
Looks like a cloud formation. There are several roundish clouds elsewhere in the formation. Or maybe it was something put up by Taco Bell--if the shadow had crossed it, everyone in America would have gotten a free taco! Oh, wait, that was something else with Mir. :)
:Peter