Workspace Switcher

The Red Hat Workspace Switcher is one of the Linux tools I use all the time. I have two screens at work, however it still isn’t enough room to keep all my documents open, read mail and so forth. For this reason I use the workspace switcher with 4 workspaces, one for my work, another for email, one for FileMaker (the system we use for breifs and work management) and another spare. One of the most useful key combos, not a particularly hard one to find - but perhaps the one I use the most heavily, is Ctrl + Alt + [Arrow Key] which allows me to move back and forward between each of these workspaces.

Another handy tip for using the workspace switcher is that you may move an window from one workspace to another simply by dragging it on the workspace switcher - simple as that.

Command Line Applet

Command Line is a GNOME Applet that sits on a panel at the top of my screen, from here you can quickly launch applications or kill processes as necessary - pretty much anything you would do in a terminal that doesn’t require feedback.

It’s not exactly groundbreaking but it’s handy if you need to quickly launch gedit, gftp or the likes to do something quickly.

Scrollbars

Scrollbars, a really common UI element, yet there were a few things I was surprised to find when using them in Suse. Clicking one of the up or down arrows at either end of the scrollbar will tab the handle up or down as you would expect. Right clicking on the up or down arrow on the other hand will scroll you to the top and bottom of the scrollable area respectively.

View Desktop

I’m a messy git, I open windows and don’t close them, layer them up and not bother to sort them in any way shape or form. Given that, the view desktop shortcut is always useful to minimise all the active windows on the workspace you are in: Ctrl + Alt + D

Tips?

Ok, so they’re not great tips, they’re handy for saving a bit of time here and there. I do, however, use these all day at work and so the time saved adds up. Gimme a shout if there’s any other decent tips that you know of.
- Chris

This morning when I arrived at work and sat at my desk I did what I usually do. I took my glasses off and gave them a clean on my shirt. Usually I just put them back on and get to the nitty-gritty, usually sitting sifting through emails to find out if any of the spam is actually useful.

Today, however was a different story indeed, as soon as I placed the glasses on my face I felt a ping and then everything went blurry. I thought that the screw holding the lens into my frames had pinged out again, yes it’s happened before, but alas no! No, the actual frame had broken right at the point where the rim meets the legs, leaving a jagged edge and a confounded Chris.

Anyway, after squinting for a while and ruling out superglue as a means to repair my glasses I eventually had to plump for Jack Duckworthing them using some tape. After which it was a quick call to the opticians to set up an appointment to get tested and some new glasses. To my amazement I managed to get an appointment today, earlier this very afternoon. An hour later and £155 down I’d managed to order two new pairs of glasses which should hopefully arrive sometime next week.

I’m continue to Duckworth until then though!
- Chris

A few google searches away and I’d found the answer to all my problems. If you have the Apple development tools installed (and are obviously on a Mac), you can simply change the file meta-data of the movies via the terminal in order to allow you to import them. It’s very simple to do:
SetFile -t "MooV" movie.avi

Via: AVI to iTunes on MacRumors Forums

I did, however, have to change the iTunes settings so that it didn’t take it’s own copy of the files when importing them. I have a separate Movies folder for a reason thank-you-very-much iTunes.
- Chris

The first Mac I ever owned, a PowerBook G4 which has served me very well over the past 5 or 6 years, is pretty much blitzed. My PowerBook and I visited Matt in Edinburgh on Saturday to see if we could revive it to it’s previous glory. We managed to pull all the stuff I needed from the hard disk, but that was all the good fortune we had.

It turns out the hard disk was suffering from a S.M.A.R.T. failure and locked up Matt’s computer when mounted as a target drive. We eventually managed to format the drive via Matt’s old PowerBook and everything looked good, but alas it was not to be - we received kernel panics when trying to install Mac OS X on the drive.

So it looks as if I’ll have to fork out for a replacement hard disk, which isn’t too big a deal at about £50 for 100Gb which would suit me. Until I manage to get one and install it my PowerBook is out of service.

/me salutes PowerBook, when my copy of the Necronomicon arrives I will bring you back!
- Chris

Try it out:

• Chicken breast
• Pasta
• Tin of chopped tomatoes
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 onion
• ½ punnet of mushrooms
• ½ courgette
• Olive oil
• Oregano
• Basil

I started by slicing the courgette and onion and crushing the garlic. Then mixed half the garlic and some oil together, put the chicken breast, mushrooms, courgette and onion into an oven dish and poured the oil and garlic over, added a bit of dried oregano and basil and put in the oven for about half an hour.

Then put the tin of tomatoes into a pot, added the rest of the garlic, a bit more olive oil and a load of dried oregano and basil. When simmering I added the contents of the oven dish and simmered for 20 more minutes. I hope you’ll figure out what I did with the pasta on your own!

It was damn fine (see picture) and I’d highly recommend it.
- Chris

I’ve recently ordered a new Mac, a Mac Pro to be precise. It is currently en route to my gleeful embrace from Apple.

The specs are as follows:

• Processors: Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
• RAM: 2GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3
• HDD: 500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
• Optical: Two 16x SuperDrives
• Connectivity: AirPort Extreme Card (Wi-Fi) & Bluetooth
• Peripherals: Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse & Apple Wireless Keyboard

It should arrive later in the week, I can’t wait to get my hands on it!
- Chris

They’ll be in the final of the Scottish Cup on the 24th May playing either St Johnstone, Rangers or Partick Thistle.

Isn’t there something quite ironic about this?

Just a note to say, if you are ever in need of a virtual machine with very configurable settings or the need to install certain software on it, Bytemark is a good choice - just a little more than I currently need (and more pricey as well).

- Chris

… because they fucking rule!

The majority of this dream is uneventful, I’m rich and live in a large mansion, two minders follow me throughout the dream, you know the type, one tall man in sunglasses and a shorter white guy with a near shaven head. Both wear black coats and skulk around in whichever room I’m in at the time.

Towards the end of the dream I’m in a room, my minders are floating around in the background, there’s a little black girl playing in the room. At some point I manage to end up crawling around on my knees, the girl has a small child size chair and is trying to put the legs over my head as to trap it in there. She is following me around, chanting something that sounds really sinister in child-rhyme style, although the words she is chanting do not sound like words at all.

(more…)

Lo and behold, the mantra of open source has reached the foodstuffs market.

The full text reads:

You might wonder why we’ve messed about with the front of this carton. Well, it all started when you told us some stuff. We asked you what you thought of this recipe and we got some interesting responses. There was a general feeling that it might be a bit too sharp, and could do with an extra slice of mango.

So off we went to the kitchen, to see if we could make it a little better. And after some blending and crushing, we are proud to present the result. An improved recipe, designed to your exact specifications. A kind of open source smoothie, without the complicated computer bits. We hope you enjoy it.

It made me laugh and I though it was worth a mention.
- Chris

Things have been going well, as I my previous post says, I’ve gotten a job in Glasgow. I’ve now also moved into my new flat and have, finally*, got an internet connection again. (Photos to follow sometime in the near future)

Everything is going pretty well, the work is interesting and the people I’m working with are a good bunch**. For the first time in a long while I actually have money, the most of which is currently gone, and I’m getting back in touch with all the folks I know in Glasgow.

Anyway this is more of an I’m back post to say: “I’m Back!”.
- Chris

* After some very troubling times with BT Broadband
** One of whom recently had a haircut!

I’m sitting back at home after my first week on the job. I’m enjoying it so far, the work is interesting enough and the people are friendly - plus the promise of money at the end of the month is incentive enough.

I’m currently looking for a flat in Glasgow to stay in, going to look at a few on Dumbarton Road on Monday, hopefully one of those will turn up to be a good un.

I’ve decided that instead of spreading my photos across the entire site with photo posts in my blog and a separate gallery section that I should really have all the photo related materials together as it probably makes more sense.

Thus I introduce to you… Phoblog and my newly updated Gallery.

This marks the end of the Photoblog category on my blog, not that it really took off in any capacity, however all new photo posts will be made in my new Phoblog. So contain your excitement and have a look.
- Chris

The overview given on the Apple site looks very nice. The device itself, if it works as detailed, will allow all control to take place with the use of your fingers - there’s no stylus in sight. Other fine looking features are the text message displays which look like an iChat conversation showing previous text messages you’ve recieved from the same contact; and self-reorientation of the screen - switching between either portrait or landscape based upon how the device is held.

It’s obvious to me that someone has dropped a large weight onto a PDA, Mac Book, mobile phone and an iPod and that this device is the result. It looks nice and it seems to be brimming with features. Let’s hope they make it and soon. Where can I preorder one?
- Chris

At 10:40 AM on the 26^th December 2006 we had an earthquake lasting just 10 seconds and as I say measured 3.5 on the Richter scale. It’s the largest seismic activity to be recorded in the UK this year and the strongest recorded in this area since 1969, also on boxing day!

The full story can be found at the BBC News website “Dumfries is shaken by earthquake“.
- Chris

Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall?
It’s the time that every Santa has a ball
Does he ride a red nosed reindeer?
Does he turn up on his sleigh?
Do the fairies keep him sober for a day?

So here it is,
Merry Christmas,
Everybody’s having fun,
Look to the future now
It’s only just begun.

Are you waiting for the family to arrive?
Are you sure you’ve got the room to spare inside?
Does your Granny always tell you
That the old songs are the best,
Then she’s up and rock ‘n’ rollin’ with the rest…

So here it is,
Merry Christmas,
Everybody’s having fun,
Look to the future now
It’s only just begun.

Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall?
Are you hoping that the snow will to start to fall?
Do you ride on down the hillside
In a bobby you have made?
When you land upon your head then you’ve been Slade.

So here it is,
Merry Christmas,
Everybody’s having fun,
Look to the future now
It’s only just begun.

Merry Christmas to all,
- Chris

The new TV replaces my, in long need of replacing, 15″ portable which I bought more than 6 years ago. The TV I opted for was from the Samsung R72 Series (26″ version).

It boasts an impressive array of features on the website, including HD-readyness and an integrated digital tuner. HD seemed the way to go and ensures that whenever this new format war is settled that either of the HD-DVD formats will be viewable on the set.

Due to the recent demise of my current Freeview box, i.e. it stopped working at all, an integrated digital tuner is probably a plus and saves having to have that pesky box sitting around taking up space.

Most of the other stuff on the site looks to be pretty much jargon for sharp picture and good colour quality. Other than that there looks to be a pretty cool looking PIP (Picture In Picture) mode which allows you to watch TV whilst playing a console, or watch a DVD whilst flicking through TV channels.

Other than these extremely endearing features I mainly bought the thing for the “Ingenious Swivel Stand”:

The LCD TVs ingenious swivel stand affords consumers the ultimate flexibility in positioning the TV in their house. It allows for mobility and ergonomic comfort in your house.

It swivels on the stand, crazy!
- Chris