Tux Love : January 2011 Archives

Shameless self-promotion

After 336 blog postings over almost five years, I'm going to use this space for a little shameless self-promotion. The reason? My latest novel, the first part of a young adult sci-fi adventure series, hits the bookshops today!

"Things get seriously weird when Tim Townsend meets a pair of super-intelligent mice with an extraordinary calculator. Suddenly he and his sister are plunged into an adventure full of strange new technology, mind parasites and visitors from very, very far a way.

Aimed at young adult and adult readers alike, Too Many Zeros is an adrenaline-filled adventure story with a cast of zany characters and a heart-stopping climax."

And as befits a blog largely dedicated Linux, my publisher is of course Penguin.

 Tux ... and friend

You'll find more details about the book here -- including an extract -- and I should have a proper website up shortly. (An IT project running late? Whoever heard of such a thing ...?)

If you're in Wellington on February 28, come along to Nerdnite 4 ("Be there and be square") where I'll be doing a somewhat tongue-in-cheek presentation about the writing and publishing process. Full details should be on the Nerdite website shortly.

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )

Hidden Linux: Wallpaper Clocks

Wallpaper clocks are silly and kind of fun. They're wallpapers that incorporate a real-time working clock and/or calendar. If that sounds a bit boring, check out some of the glorious graphics below. (My current favourite is Cheshire Kitten. Just flipping to a new desktop and seeing that grin is enough to make me smile.)

Kubuntu Installation

Visit this link and download the Wallpaper Clock plasmoid script.
Install it in a terminal with the command plasmapkg -i filename.
Right-click the desktop, choose Desktop Settings and Wallpaper.
You should now find Wallpaper Clocks on the Type drop-down.
The list of available images will be blank so click Get New Wallpapers. This will take you to the Vladstudio site where you can select a variety of images in the appropriate size. (Use the Back button to get more and Close when you're done.)
Back in Desktop Settings you'll now have a selection to choose from. Select one and click Apply.

Ubuntu Installation

Install Gnome's screenlets package either via the Software Centre or by typing sudo apt-get install screenlets.
Start Applications / Accessories / Screenlets, scroll down and double-click Wallpaper Clocks.
A clock icon will appear on your desktop. Right-click it and choose Download More Clocks. This will take you to the Vladstudio site where you can select a variety of images in the appropriate size.
Right-click the clock icon again to Install Wallpaper Clock, browse to your download directory and select the appropriate .wcz file. Repeat for each clock.
Right-click the clock icon once more to Change Wallpaper Clock and choose the one you want from the list.

Here's a selection of some of the clocks available. (Click to link.)

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Problems with Windows Phone 7

The Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system appears to having one or two problems ...

Phantom Data Usage

Microsoft has told BBC News that it is investigating why some handsets running its Windows Phone 7 software are sending and receiving "phantom data".
Several net forums detail complaints from people that say their phones are automatically eating into their monthly data plans without their knowledge.
Some have complained that their phone sends "between 30 and 50MB of data" every day; an amount that would eat into a 1GB allowance in 20 days.

Application Limitations

Someone found out the hard way what happens when you install more than 15 applications that use the push notification system in Windows Phone 7. To put it bluntly: it stops working. The first 15 push enabled apps work, but install more than that and the rest simply don't get updates.

But it's not a limitation, it's a feature -- according to Microsoft.

Marketplace DRM Cracked
Bad news if you're selling in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. This hack can ...

... successfully pull any application from the Marketplace, remove the security and deploy to an unlocked Windows Phone with literally a push of a button. Alternatively, you could just save the cracked XAP file to your hard drive.

Neither the app nor methodology were released, but it the hacker claims it took only 6 hours to develop. Then he developed a patch:

The crack was not intended to harm the WP7 Marketplace, but was intended as a critique of Microsoft's seemingly lax security. To help protect developers in the interim, while Microsoft develops its own solution, Tobias has posted code that developers can deploy in their apps to help protect them from piracy.

Meanwhile open source Android continues to chalk up more than 300,000 new registrations every day.

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 7:51 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Fitting Thunderbird on a netbook

Thunderbird on a netbook looks a little cramped. Here's how to free up some screen space.

1. Ditch the menu bar
Install the Compact Menu 2 extension. It replaces the menu bar with a toolbar button.

Before

After (unclicked)

After (clicked)

That's one whole line saved!

2. Auto-hide tabbed windows
By default, Thunderbird displays tabbed windows even if you only have one tab open. To fix this go to Tools / Options / Advanced / General and click on Config Editor. In the Filter window type mail.tabs.autohide and double-click the option to set its value to True.

Before

After

Another line gone - unless you open a tab.

3. Compress message headers
The Compact Header extension compresses message headers to a single line and adds an icon to toggle them on and off.

Before

After

Clicking the little "+" sign will toggle the header. (With the full header on you'll find more configuration header options under the Other Actions icon.)

4. Add more actions to the toolbar
I like to have the Reply, Reply All and Delete buttons on the toolbar (especially as they're now hidden on the message header). Placing them there is simple: right-click on the toolbar, choose Customize and drag the Reply, Reply All and Delete buttons into place. Rearrange to suit your taste and tick the Use Small Icons selection too.

Any more space-saving Thunderbird tips? Drop me a comment!

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )