Archive for March, 2008
GPytage 0.2.0_beta2 released
Posted by Ken in Gentoo, Programming, Python on March 27, 2008
So after months and weeks of lazyness, I have decided to release beta2 of GPytage. This release adds many new features, fixes various bugs, and other code mangling that I forgot to document. You can read the changes in the ChangeLog.
For fellow Gentoo users out there, you can grab the ebuild on gna or my overlay.
As usual please test and report bugs back, give feed back about it: what could be improved, what you hate, why it sucks, why it’s great, whatever.
Oh, and here is a screenie:
The laptop search continues…
So my ongoing search for a laptop still continues. I have made some progress however.
I have decided on a 15.4″ laptop, and definitely want a laptop that can at least run Supreme Commander well. Basically, the laptop has to have a dedicated GPU, not integrated crap.
Recently, the Dell XPS M1530 has caught my eye. I have customized it to my liking and it seems great, besides the high price…
Advanced Python or Understanding Python
Posted by Ken in Programming, Python on March 20, 2008
For the Python junkies out there, or even for those just starting out, Google has been publishing its tech talks on Google Video. Advanced Python or Understanding Python is a video by Thomas Wouters which I recommend to anyone interested in Python to watch. For those already in the loop, Google also has a video about Python 3000 by Guido van Rossum which I recommend watching as well to learn about the upcoming changes and goals.
Who designed this?
So, I’m typing up something of significant or insignificant length in a browser (such as this post), and notice and error. So I instinctively hit backspace and to my suprise the text field had somehow lost focus. What does this backspace key do when not in a text field? Why go back to the latest viewed page. Fantastic. So I hit forwards in anger, and to my suprise what I was just typing is gone.
Who thought this was a good idea? One of the most used keys in typing, can lose everything you’ve typed. This currently happened in Opera, but I’ve seen the behavior exihibited in other browsers aswell.
Normally, browsers save the values of these textfields, but this one seems so full of javascript, the browser doesn’t. Sigh.
Gentoo developer
So after being an Arch Tester for the Gentoo AMD64 Team, I’ve finally become a Gentoo Developer for the AMD64 team. Hopefully I don’t break the tree 
Let the java bugs start decreasing!
wmii, the other window manager
So lately I have been using wmii over fluxbox as my main window manager. What is wmii you ask? Well it’s a dynamic window manager that tiles windows to be equal sizes, so you never have to do it manually.
urxvt seems to break this concept of dynamic resizing on “workspaces” it is spawn on, but this came to be an advantage. I didn’t want pidgin to grow/resize dynamically, so I simply spawn a urxvt window on that workspace and consequently use it for screen and irssi.
At first I didn’t think I would like wmii, but I really started liking it after messing with it for a bit. It has a sleek and minimal bar at the bottom that contains the tags (workspaces), cpu load, and the time by default. mod + enter launches a terminal of your choice (mine was urxvt obviously), and mod+p lets you launch programs with auto complete as you type. by default the mod key is set to alt, which initially gave me problems and almost made me scrap the entire window manager on its own. Eventually I figured out I could map it to a different key, and none other than the useless windows key became that key. Irssi and wmii now happily coexist with each other.
For now it seems wmii has taken its place as my default window manager, but fluxbox still rocks too.
Scourge webbrowser
Posted by Ken in Programming on March 7, 2008
Yes, I see that once again after reconstructing my site I have ended up breaking a lot of old links. Well good news! Anyone still looking for the Scourge browser for Mac OS X at under 1 megabyte can get it here.
The quest for a laptop
So as college starts rapidly approaching as the year passes on, I realize I need a new laptop. I’ve been looking for awhile and playing around with laptops at stores. As of now, I’m pondering the HP Pavilion dv6700t notebook. It seems like a nice 15.4 laptop that can be upgraded pretty decently without breaking the bank. My only concern is the glossy screen on the new laptops and if I will be able to use them in day to day activities. Hopefully the reflectiveness of the screen won’t give me headaches if I decide to buy one.
My other choice was a new ThinkPad, but they seem to be more expensive than I’m willing to spend. I know they have great quality and everything… but the trackpad is so small, and I don’t really use the trackpoint that much. The keyboard on the HP wasn’t that bad either. I just hope that whichever laptop I decide to pickup in the near future has decent battery life. I’m aiming for at least 3 hours with nvidia graphics, but that may be hard without a battery that sticks out of the frame.
Status of GPytage beta2
Posted by Ken in Programming, Python on March 2, 2008
So for anyone keeping track of my development of GPytage, you would know I am soon getting ready to bundle up and ship beta2. There’s still some things missing and that need polishing, but it’s slowly getting there even though school has been eating my time away to work on the things that need to get fixed.
Most of what needs to be done is easy for me to fix, but one thing isn’t. GPytage needs an icon. Not only that, but it has to be GPL compatible. [bug link] I tried making an icon, but lets just say it resembled something hit by an asteroid and wasn’t suitable.
Stay tuned and I should have more updates on the way while I fix bugs that I introduce all the time. If anyone has suggestions please let me know, or file a bug here.
Hello World
Posted by Ken in Uncategorized on March 2, 2008
Yeah. I have a blog again. Who knows how it will end up this time, hopefully better off.