May 2009 screenshots

[gamblor01]

Jeez I thought you would never ask!!! It has been the month of May for an entire 42 minutes here (in the eastern time zone anyway). I just finished up my last paper of the semester, now the only thing that stands in my way of graduation is my thesis.

I just realized it was May though and I am pleased to announce that I just recently got conky installed and configured the way I want it to, so I wanted to show it off.

In case you're curious, I wrote a script that determines whether the current window manager is Metacity or Compiz. I play Team Fortress 2 through wine and it seems to run much better when Metacity is the WM. I kept forgetting to switch it though, so now I have a very easy method to tell!

http://slackbox.homelinux.org/may-desktop.png


Two interesting pieces of information I found out from conky:

1) My system isn't recognizing the full 4GB of RAM I have installed. It recognizes 3.2 -- something else must be hogging that RAM. It's not onboard video that's for sure (my board doesn't even have onboard video).

2) My newer hard drive with my Linux partitions runs significantly cooler than my old drive (running XP). Lucky for me Linux is way better anyway. Go ahead HDD0...crash...see if I care. :p

[nolimit974]

http://tpspace.net/screenshots/may09.png

[folkert]

My system isn't recognizing the full 4GB of RAM
do you have 32 or 64 bit linux?

my desktop:
http://members.chello.nl/f.muller13/Screenshot.png

[gamblor01]

do you have 32 or 64 bit linux?
32-bit, but why should that matter? 2^32 *is* ~4 billion, so it should be capable of addressing all 4GB of memory. With physical address extensions I should be capable of using 2^36 memory (though I realize that each individual process is still limited to a maximum of 4GB virtual space).

What gives? What am I missing?

[folkert]

not sure, I heard of the problem, but am not sure if it is a windows only problem.

[loopback48]

No. Both Linux and Windows 32 bits systems do not recognized more that 4 Gb of ram. You'll have to upgrade to a 64 bit OS to take full advantage of all your ram. To be honest, other than the ram recognition, a 32 bit distro works just as good as a 64 bit distro. Just my observations.

Neither my laptop nor my desktop have more that 4 Gb of ram. But on my laptop I run Lenny 32 and on my desktop I'm running Lenny 64.

Sorry I got off topic. Lets get back to the screen shots.

[blackbelt_jones]

http://tpspace.net/screenshots/may09.png

No limit974 always has the best looking desktop. That's because he's always bored and has nothing to do. I know that because I follow him on Twitter.

[nolimit974]

lol you are right i have nothing better to do....i have desktop standards too...i am gonna stop posting ads on twitter now so i will start posting real tweets.

[gamblor01]

No. Both Linux and Windows 32 bits systems do not recognized more that 4 Gb of ram.

I agree with this statement. This is not the point I am trying to make however. What I am saying is that I have *EXACTLY* 4GB of RAM. This is 2^32 (roughly 4 billion), which is precisely the largest address that a 32-bit processor is capable of addressing. Thus, a 32-bit processor should be able to address and use *AT MOST* 4GB of RAM. Since I have exactly 4GB of RAM I would expect to be able to use all of it. I certainly realize however that if I were to put more than 4GB of RAM in this machine I wouldn't be able to address that.

[nolimit974]

A 32bit system can use upto 4gb of ram and 64 bit can use 4gb>....google is your friend who never lies...i have 1gb currently in this computer but linux only show 980mb...no big deal just use flux

[je_fro]

I just read something about the "memory hole"...
http://www.mail-archive.com/gentoo-amd64@lists.gentoo.org/msg11060.html

[nolimit974]

dang people this is suppose to be a screenshot thread quit jacking it please...back to the screenshots

[gamblor01]

A 32bit system can use upto 4gb of ram and 64 bit can use 4gb>....google is your friend who never lies...i have 1gb currently in this computer but linux only show 980mb...


Uggh...I feel like I'm pulling teeth here. It seems like no one is carefully reading what I am saying!!! I don't need google to know how much memory a 32-bit system can address; I have nearly completed my masters in computer science (should defend my thesis in June and graduate in August!), I have taken several architecture courses, and I have even been a TA for an undergraduate assembly course (8086 ASM). I am well aware of the fact that a 32-bit system cannot utilize more than 4GB of RAM. As I have already stated (three times), I have *EXACTLY* 4GB of RAM. Thus, my system should be recognizing all 4GB instead of 3.21GB!

(nolimit, I mean no disrespect against you personally; I'm just frustrated in general)

je_fro, I appreciate your effort but unfortunately I don't see any options in my BIOS to help me out. :(

I created another thread asking about PAE though (not sure if it's my problem or not) so I'll wrap up my discussion of memory now.



No limit974 always has the best looking desktop.



no big deal just use flux


I have tried using flux twice now and I just can't do it. I personally think it's a bit ugly (especially the window borders for some reason), but more importantly the interface just doesn't seem to be as productive as gnome. I will say this though, I do have a funny experience with flux: My wife went upstairs and shortly thereafter she yells down at me: "Ummm honey. Can you come here? The computer is -- well -- not a computer."

I did rip off the latest background from the "Human" login window in Ubuntu 9.04 and set it as my desktop background, so my May screenshot has changed already:

http://slackbox.homelinux.org/may-desktop.png
http://slackbox.homelinux.org/may-desktop2.png

The second pic shows some windows open. Obviously, I change the window borders in gnome. I like this border theme though. I especially like it in combination with the transparent terminal and how the border even becomes transparent for the windows that are not currently in focus. To each his own though! I'm not going to sit here and say gnome is better or flux or better or KDE is better -- though seriously, gnome is better than KDE (inside joke, sorry :D). The great thing about Linux is that you can configure it however you want and use what is best for *you*.

[je_fro]

dang people this is suppose to be a screenshot thread quit jacking it please...back to the screenshots

Sheesh! Okay here's a quick one --> http://je-fro.net/05072009.png

[commodoor]

here is mine :)
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/8291/screenshoteyf.png

[gamblor01]

Sheesh! Okay here's a quick one --> http://je-fro.net/05072009.png


Uhhhhh....wow. Our OS X desktops are clearly polar opposites of each other:

http://slackbox.homelinux.org/osx-screen.jpg

[je_fro]

Uhhhhh....wow. Our OS X desktops are clearly polar opposites of each other:

http://slackbox.homelinux.org/osx-screen.jpg

Get to work you slacker!
:)

[loopback48]

Get to work you slacker!
:)

It's good to have you back je_fro. I used to think of you as a pain. But I found myself missing you when you were gone. Just kidding! You weren't that much of a pain. Not really. OK, just a bit. A little bit. :)

[gamblor01]

Get to work you slacker!
:)


I know, I know, I need to -- thesis sure won't write itself!

Not sure what you're up to with all of the sequences there. I took a "computational genomics" course but wasn't very fond of it. I found that it was really just a statistics class in disguise. Barf.

I did work on one (unpublished) paper that I had some fun with though. I used text mining from the pubmed database to try and identify sequence motifs in promoter regions. It actually worked and discovered some known motifs, and some motifs that seemed to be previously unknown (at least to the databases I was comparing to). It would certainly need some refinement for it to be used extensively but it was definitely the highlight of the course for me.

I initially thought I might do my thesis in some bioinformatics type thingy, but no. Now I just work on spreading malware in online social networks.



...and defending against such attacks of course! Exploiting my machine, "owning it", and stealing credentials off of it was definitely more fun than writing my defense application though. ;)

[je_fro]

Promoter motifs?
I use this all the time: http://bipad.cmh.edu/
Works like a charm for RAR/RXR type stuff...

[deathadder]

gamblor01 what desklets are you using?

[gamblor01]

gamblor01 what desklets are you using?
It's just conky. ;)

It's sort of a neat way that it works though. For example, the weather script (condition.sh) outputs a letter depending on the conditions it pulls down from yahoo weather. But then inside of the .conkyrc file it specifies to output that letter using the "weather" font. So if the weather script finds out from yahoo that the weather is "fair" or "sunny" then it outputs the letter A. When conky receives that it also outputs the letter A, but uses the weather font to do so, and in weather font, the letter A is a 'sunny' graphic. Pretty neat!

If you're interested, I used the information from this web site as a starting point:

http://www.quicktweaks.com/2008/09/27/gmail-weather-beauty-right-on-your-ubuntu-desktop/


My main barrier was that the script to pull weather from yahoo is entirely in Polish. Luckily, with the help of google translator I was able to translate the pogodynka.sh script (mostly) into English and then make modifications to it however I wanted (I changed it to output humidity, and also changed it to use English variable names and moved the output file to ~/.weather instead of ~/weather, etc.). I also never played with conky before so I had to figure out the syntax of the .conkyrc as well.

[deathadder]

It's just conky. ;)
Even better, I know what I'm going to play with when I get done at work now.

Thanks for the link!

[gamblor01]

If it helps, attached is my .conkyrc file (though I had to rename it since valid attachments can only have certain extensions).

[blackbelt_jones]

I have tried using flux twice now and I just can't do it. I personally think it's a bit ugly (especially the window borders for some reason), but more importantly the interface just doesn't seem to be as productive as gnome.


I would never tell anyone what to use, and maybe you already know all about this, but don't mistake fluxbox out of the box for the window manager that inspires what may be the most cultlike devotion of all desktop GUIs.

It's all about the flexibility. That menu and those submenus, they can all be edited by hand easily and quickly, and you can choose where every item is. A menu that you completely edit yourself is intuitive as hell.

You can set dozens of custom keyboard shortcuts more easily than with anything else I've ever used. Also, those window borders, there's an awful lot that you can do with them by editing those style files. You can chose color and font, and text formatting. And I think the latest version of fluxbox looks a lot better, but the way.

Best of all you can keep using your files over and over. Copy them into your new install, and bango, your system is customized. Instant setup! You can keep the menu online, so you can always have access from any computer with any live CD that supports fluxbox. Copy the files to ~/.fluxbox and you are all set up. That's why JeFro says he's been using the same files for years. So have I, though they change all the time.

And by adding a good gui file manager, such as Dolphin or Nautilus, you can have all of the icons, and the drag and drop functionality back.

[blackbelt_jones]

http://i546.photobucket.com/albums/hh433/blackbelt_jones_screenshots/snapshot6.png

Here's another screenshot of Yakuake on KDE 3.5.10 on Slax. The effect here is achieved by using two different background images, both with the same design but different color schemes.

[deathadder]

If it helps, attached is my .conkyrc file (though I had to rename it since valid attachments can only have certain extensions).
Thanks, will be posting a screen shot soon :)

[deathadder]

Here's my latest

http://www.open-moments.com/images/screenshots/May09.png

[gamblor01]

Check it out...you got conky running I see. :D

When I first looked at the icon you chose for your root partition I thought it was an angry face. Unfortunately it's just an 'X'. The angry face would have been awesome though. ;)

[je_fro]

If it helps, attached is my .conkyrc file (though I had to rename it since valid attachments can only have certain extensions).
What about the scripts that are referred to in the rc file?

[gamblor01]

I would never tell anyone what to use, and maybe you already know all about this, but don't mistake fluxbox out of the box for the window manager that inspires what may be the most cultlike devotion of all desktop GUIs.

Yeah I know. I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes, and I'm all for using whatever works best for you, I just seem to do best with gnome. I tried fluxbox (and even installed your kickbox stuff once) but it just didn't seem to click for me. I can't state why with any certainty...but I just know it wasn't right for me. It's certainly the right choice for many out there though and I have nothing but respect for that decision.


What about the scripts that are referred to in the rc file?

I thought you wanted me to get to work on my thesis? Make up your mind -- should I get you the scripts or work on my thesis!? :p

The original scripts and all of the fonts are available from the link I gave to deathadder (see post #22). I did change some of them and certainly have added some stuff and toyed around with things; I prefer my scripts, obviously. As I said before, I changed everything to use a ~/.weather file instead of ~/weather and translated the pogodynka.sh script to English (and renamed it weather.sh). Since posting my .conkyrc file on May 13 I have made some further changes and cleaned things up a bit. So attached is my current, (and I think) improved .conkyrc file.

And here is a link to where you can download my supporting scripts (better hurry though -- I'm moving back to Austin in a few days and my site will be down for some time while we stop in New Orleans):

http://slackbox.homelinux.org/conkyscripts.tar.gz

[gamblor01]

I should also mention that I got the nvidia*.sh scripts from gnome-look.org (I didn't write them), specifically here:

http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Conky_flavours?content=94467

But OH SNAP I just found another conky script that will not only give you current weather, but show the weather for the next several days. I'm totally playing around with that RIGHT NOW!!!

http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/CONKY-colors?content=92328


EDIT: I just found out that using the 5 day weather forecast in conky colors requires you to register with weather.com. You have to agree to their license agreement, which means you agree to have a weather.com logo on your desktop app/web site that (when clicked) takes the user to weather.com. In order to avoid all of that, I'm just going to wind up writing my own script! (not that I really expect them to come after me or cancel my account but still -- it's the principle of the matter).

Yahoo's weather service already agreed to all of that nonsense, so I can just get the information from them!

Here is how to get the 5 day forecast easily (obviously you need to change the USNC0107 to your city code):


w3m -dump http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/USNC0107.html | grep -A 3 "6-10 Day"


Also, current weather (logo) can be found via:


w3m -dump http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/USNC0107.html | grep -A 2 "Current" | tail -n 1


The current temperature is easy as well:


w3m -dump http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/USNC0107.html | grep -A 3 "Sunset" | tail -n 1


and if you want to know what it feels like outside (due to windchill/humidity):


w3m -dump http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/USNC0107.html | grep -A 1 "Feels Like:" | tail -n 1



Now I just need to figure out how to parse that output and then display it all properly in conky. Wish me luck!

[deathadder]

Check it out...you got conky running I see. :D

When I first looked at the icon you chose for your root partition I thought it was an angry face. Unfortunately it's just an 'X'. The angry face would have been awesome though. ;)
I've had conky running for a while, it's just looked rather boring so thanks for sharing your conkyrc otherwise I would have been too lazy to update mine! :)

I'm not sure if I want my / making a angry face at me ;) Maybe there's a emoticon font out there somewhere though...:D

[gamblor01]

In order to avoid all of that, I'm just going to wind up writing my own script! (not that I really expect them to come after me or cancel my account but still -- it's the principle of the matter).

Well this might be significantly more difficult that I was expecting. I can obtain the output for the 5 day forecast in a text file that looks like this:


Cloudy
63°
63°
Today Tomorrow Tue Wed Thu 6-10 Day
Rain AM Showers Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Cloudy
High: 65° High: 67° High: 74° High: 81° High: 80°
Low: 48° Low: 48° Low: 53° Low: 60° Low: 65°


The first few lines are easy (current conditions, current temp, current "feels like") but it's when I start getting into the 5-day forecast that I run into trouble. It's easy enough to output the highs and lows, but outputting the conditions is tricky. I could just use grep and grab each token in the string but the problem is that it's possible for a conditions to contain more than one token.

For example, in the above output "Rain" is today's forecast but "AM Showers" is tomorrow's. I would have to code up a ton of logic that says grab only 1 token if it's:


"Rain" || "Cloudy" || "Sunny" || ...


but grab 2 tokens if the token is:


"AM" || "PM" || "Partly" || "Mostly" || ...


Yet another problem is that I don't know of an exhaustive list of all of the possible outputs. So I would have to augment the script here and there as I ran into problems.

So it might just be easier to register with weather.com and use the existing stuff. :(

[blackbelt_jones]

Everybody has a strong opinion about KDE4, except me; I have several! I have been unable to decide if I love it or hate it, but embracing the "Folder View" desktop activity type has taken me another big step toward resolving my ambivalence.

I know for a fact that at least some KDE3 holdouts aren't aware of the"Folder View" option (No wonder, with a confusing name like that, BTW!) , which provides a more traditional KDE Desktop: icons on the desktop, widgets on the panel, Thank you very much! I think that more of us KDE Desktop refugees ought to consider giving it a try. It's pretty clear that the KDE team has been working to satisfy us, and some of us should get on board to help them. It's not all the way there yet, but support from the community is what will get them there, and while the Desktop itself needs work, in my opinion, there have been exciting developments in the KDE applications that make embracing KDE4 as a whole worth the minor inconveniences.
http://i546.photobucket.com/albums/hh433/blackbelt_jones_screenshots/snapshot3-2-1.png (http://i546.photobucket.com/albums/hh433/blackbelt_jones_screenshots/snapshot3-2.png)