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Ubuntu annoyances

Qball — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:33:08 +0000

I have been having a lot of annoying with the latest ubuntu… Help is welcome:

A list of some of the annoyances:

Printing to print-server that requires samba authentication. This worked fine in 11.04 and 10.04.. In 11.10 it never authenticated. In the end I had to use a custom backend that uses smbclient directly. It shows the same auth. popup, but printing works.
Nautilus keeps drawing my background.. Even if I disable it in dconf-editor. Very very annoying.
gajim does not start with python error about keychain..
Strange lockups off the laptop on shutdown.
Printing directly to color laserjet fails. It keeps telling me printer is busy, works fine with same settings from 11.04.
if I disable wifi and turn it on again (using HW switch) I have to type: nmcli nm wifi off and nmcli wifi on a to get it working again.
lightdm shutdown button does exactly nothing.. always have to switch to terminal to shutdown.
etc.

It is that we use ‘ubuntu’ as sort of ‘default’ at work, but I am considering switching to something else..

With the last several releases things I use for work got worse and worse every release. It became harder and harder to use openbox+tint2 as desktop, etc.

IfThenElse: Added some documentation.

Qball — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:58:17 +0000

It is only a beginning, but it can be found here: http://api.sarine.nl/ifthenelse/ifthenelse/IfThenElse.html.
If you have requests let me know. (on github)

IfThenElse: A new file format

Qball — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:54:32 +0000

Because of some complains I got about the file format (xml, hard to handwrite) and the extra dependency on GTK it added, I wrote my own TinyBuilder that parses ini style files.

So an example in the current version would be:

^?View Code INI

[OutputWatch]
type=OutputWatch
kill_child = true
cmd=dbus-monitor interface=org.gnome.ScreenSaver
fire_regex=.*member=ActiveChanged.*
action=CheckScreenSaver
 
[CheckScreenSaver]
type=ExternalToolCheck
cmd=gnome-screensaver-command -q
output-compare=The screensaver is inactive
compare-old-state=true
then-action=EnableGajim
else-action=WorkHourCheck1
 
[WorkHourCheck1]
type=TimeCheck
hour=8
minute=30
then-action=WorkHourCheck2
else-action=DisableGajim
 
[WorkHourCheck2]
type=TimeCheck
hour=17
minute=30
then-action=DisableGajim
else-action=AwayGajim
 
[DisableGajim]
type=ExternalToolAction
cmd=gajim-remote change_status offline
 
[AwayGajim]
type=ExternalToolAction
cmd=gajim-remote change_status away "Leave a message after the beep" 
 
 
[EnableGajim]
type=ExternalToolAction
cmd=gajim-remote change_status online

IfThenElse: Looking for somebody to write a gui

Qball — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:51:29 +0000

I am looking for somebody that can write a small gui for IfThenElse.. Basically it should allow users to draw a flowchart, edit properties on nodes and generate parsable format data for me.
I looked at goocanvas, and it seems very suited for this. I don’t have time todo it myself (though I _realy_ want too), I have to much to code/maintain at the moment anyway.
So interrested in IfThenElse and wanting to learn/experienced in for example goocanvas, contact me: #gmpc @ irc.freenode.org or qball@gmpclient.org.

Putting IfThenElse to work

Qball — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:49:13 +0000

I blogged previous about IfThenElse.. It is a very simple tool, but combined with random other programs can become a fun and powerful tool:

The following script locks my screen, puts jabber status on away when I turn off the lights in the room. Unlocks the screen when turning the lights back on.. Also when I start vlc/totem/mplayer it will set my jabber status to away “watching a movie”.

This is all described in the following xml file:

^?View Code XML

>
	 class="IfThenElseTimerTrigger" id="lights_timer">
		 name="timeout">5>
		>
			 class="IfThenElseMultiAction" id="main_multiplier">
				>
					 class="IfThenElseChain" id="lights_chain">
						 type="if">
							 class="IfThenElseExternalToolCheck" id="check_light">
								 name="cmd">./Scripts/domotica_check_light.sh>
								 name="true_status">1>
								 name="false_status">0>
								 name="compare_old_state">true>
							 >
						>
						 type="then">
							 class="IfThenElseMultiAction" id="multiplier">
								>
									 class="IfThenElseExternalToolAction" id="lights_off_action">
										 name="cmd">gnome-screensaver-command -a -l>
										 name="kill_child">false>
									>
								>
								>
									 class="IfThenElseExternalToolAction" id="lights_off_action2">
										 name="cmd">mpc -h 192.150.0.106 stop>
										 name="kill_child">false>
									>
								>
								>
									 class="IfThenElseExternalToolAction" id="lights_off_action3">
										 name="cmd">gajim-remote change_status away>
										 name="kill_child">false>
									>
								>
							>
						>
						 type="else">
							 class="IfThenElseMultiAction" id="lights_on_action_multi">
								>
									 class="IfThenElseExternalToolAction" id="lights_on_action">
										 name="cmd">gnome-screensaver-command -d>
										 name="kill_child">false>
									>
								>
								>
									 class="IfThenElseExternalToolAction" id="lights_on_action2">
										 name="cmd">gajim-remote change_status online>
										 name="kill_child">false>
									>
								>
							>
						>
					>
				>
				>
					 class="IfThenElseChain" id="movie_chain">
						 type="if">
							 class="IfThenElseExternalToolCheck" id="check_movie">
								 name="cmd">./Scripts/check_movie.sh>
								 name="true_status">1>
								 name="false_status">0>
								 name="compare_old_state">true>
							 >
						>
						 type="then">
							 class="IfThenElseExternalToolAction" id="movie_on_action">
								 name="cmd">gajim-remote change_status away "watching movie">
								 name="kill_child">false>
							>
						>
						 type="else">
							 class="IfThenElseExternalToolAction" id="movie_off_action">
								 name="cmd">gajim-remote change_status online>
								 name="kill_child">false>
							>
						>
					>
				>
			>
		>
	>
>

Waldo 2

Qball — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:57:32 +0000

Another run, as you can see it is developing differently here:

I always find it fun to watch how it develops.

GMPC 11.8 Win32 Release

Qball — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:15:04 +0000

Thanks to Avuton, there is now a working windows 32 build of GMPC 11.8.

You can download it here:

Portable app: http://download.sarine.nl/Programs/gmpc/11.8.16/GmpcPortable_11.8.16_English.paf.exe

Installer: http://download.sarine.nl/Programs/gmpc/11.8.16/gmpc-11.8.16-win32.exe

Files: http://download.sarine.nl/Programs/gmpc/11.8.16/gmpc-11.8.16-win32.7z

Again, big thanks to avuton for building these.

EvO – Image vectorization using evolution

Qball — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:49:02 +0000

I promised to put this code online, so here it is. EvO. A small program that (with very crappy results) uses ‘genetic’ algorithm to vectorize images.

It is based on this blog post: http://rogeralsing.com/2008/12/07/genetic-programming-evolution-of-mona-lisa/

I never finished it to produce nice results like the above blog post, but I had fun time writing it.

It is written in vala. Code can be found on github: https://github.com/DaveDavenport/Evo

An example (waldo): (see full gallery here)

../evo --help
Usage:
  evo [OPTION...] Evo

Help Options:
  -?, --help           Show help options

Application Options:
  -i, --input          Input file
  -j, --threads        Number of CPU threads to run
  -p, --population     Size of the popution (default 16)
  -n, --initial        Initial file
  -r, --render         Render file
  -w, --width          Output width
  -h, --height         Output height
  --output-png         Output png instead of svg

If Then Else

Qball — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:51:37 +0000

I wrote a small tool. in the past day. called IfThenElse (Yes needs a better name).
The idea is simple:
You have a trigger, for example a timeout.
So for example every 10 minutes check the network state.
When the network state is connected, Check every 2.5 minutes google reader for unread messages.
When there are unread messages show a status icon…

Or in image form (this is generated from a working example):

The whole thing is based on a one ‘main’ program that calls external scripts to function. The program itself is written in Vala, uses GtkBuilder to dynamically load ‘flows’ like the above one.

The main goal in the future is that I can do things like, pause the music when skype calls come in. Notify me every 10 minutes when there are items on my todo list. etc.

The program is not ready for use, but I am looking for some input/help.

In a list:

Current input format is a GtkBuilder file. This nicely ‘matches’ the structure of the above flow (it is just an xml file). But is not very user friendly to write.
So we either generate a gui to generate the chains? (should be easy, just allow user to draw a flowchart) or come up with a better file format.
Use Cases. This would help me decide what needs to be added. At the moment I have a timer trigger working, I can execute external programs for the check. Execute external programs as action or show an status icon..
Write examples helper scripts? (allow directly calling of python scripts? javascript? using libpeas?)

Please mail me (qball@gmpclient.org) or contact me on irc #gmpc @ irc.freenode.net.

Code can be found here: https://github.com/DaveDavenport/IfThenElse

GMPC Windows Builds

Qball — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:20:22 +0000

Avuton has done some great work recently on the windows builds. So hopefully we can provides builds again for the next release.

A screenshot says more then 1000 words: