Tuesday, September 13, 2005
SuSE 9.3, BBS & Comedy
So I finally bit the bullet and decided I needed to upgrade my system from SuSE 9.1 to SuSE 9.3. I had updated 9.1 to KDE 3.4 through a supplemental YaST repository. It took some doing, but I had done it to make use of a working Kopete. I had been noticing lately that I was having some media problems. Most notable were sound problems. I was hoping a total upgrade would fix things.
The upgrade process itself was quite painless. In place updating of all things good. It took about an hour to run the 5 CDs for the professional addition. I believe there was an update of 561 packages, 92 new packages, and 97 removed packages. That's allot of packages.
My next step forward was to finally after 6+ great years of service from the blackbox window manager to fully move into KDE 3.4. I'm not really sure why I did that, but it's done. I can always move back if I become completely fed up. My mission was to get basically the same interaction from KDE that I was used to in blackbox. It proves to be slightly harder than I thought. It took me about 15 minutes to move the kicker panel up top, and configure the Kpager to operate like bbpager did, along with the global shortcuts. I decided to leave the clock, and a Kmenu in the upper left hand corner, because I just don't know when I'll need that. ;-)
The right click menus that I customized for blackbox are not so simple to implement in KDE. I have become more familiar with the Control Center. Under the desktop behavior settings you can actually specify what action from a left, middle or right click on the mouse. I need a custom menu, as opposed to the standard menus KDE offers. My issue with KDE is that the custom menu creation interface completely sucks. I mentioned this to Aaron, and he sheepishly agreed. You can create a list of "Applications" that you can add to a monolithic list (if you happen to have a monolithic list of things you want in the menu). I mean blackbox has had the ability for submenus for ... I don't know ... years and years and years? Surely a project of KDE maturity level should allow an end user to create custom menus with sub menus available to them? Regardless I have a small menu of the applications I commonly use, and it seems to be working out for now. The only small problem is that Kontact does not launch properly from this submenu. It will launch from the Kmenu, and from the kicker panel, but will _not_ launch properly from my custom menu. It launches the Configure panel for Kontact, and that is as far as it ever gets.
The last annoyance was the fact that I had no sound! Thats right ... no sound at all. Aaron mentioned he had heard several problems with SuSE 9.3. "Things like that ..." he said ... "I didn't want to mention it on the phone while you were already half way into it". Well I did some online reading, and found a few things. I had already checked the mixer levels through kmix, and the ncurses alsamixer. Nothing seemed to work. I did completely uninstall, and re-install the alsa package. I also updated (*touched*) several KDE packages because I seemed to have newer versions than were available ... something was wrong. I altered the hardware sound volume levels through YaST. I actually had to alter them through the KDE YaST2 GUI in order for them to take hold. Magically I had sound again. A small tweaking here and there, and I was back in working order. So I am pleased, and have a working system in which I can do everything I need to on a daily basis.
I had recently had the task of adding forums into the L&Y toolkit. I didn't just jump in and start coding. I had been thinking about this for some time. I decided to do some research first. I invested (ie. wasted) around an hour looking into pre-existing solutions for BBS. I found what ones were available and compatible to be over complicated, poorly designed, or way to complex for my needs. I decided I could write my own much easier, and would do exactly what I wanted. I looked at several messages boards to see how they flowed, and to compare look and feel, features, and friendliness. I came up with a simple design and after 2 days I had integrated a full BBS system into the toolkit. It's simple, sharp looking (IMO), and light. The additions to our framework of code (which does handle the user accounts, DB abstraction, and HTML interfaces) was only 3 files. 2 PHP source files with the include library being around 500 lines, and the implementation being about 100 lines. Plus a css style sheet, and a few images. AJ is super pleased with it, and some of the users who have looked at it are impressed as well. Now we just have to completely re organize the toolkit to match their internal work flows better.
Comedy ... last night Aaron enticed me to come out with him to Dickens pub because he landed into a couple of tickets to the comedy night there. I used to go to yuk yuks at Watts On Main in Moose Jaw during my SIAST years. It was usually a great time. I've been to yuk yuks here in Calgary at the Blackfoot Inn and again it is good times. So I wasn't really in the state of going out (ie no $$), but I agreed anyways. It was a chance to get out so I took it. Let me throw something out to you ... isn't a requirement of being a comedian that you are at least semi-funny to a number of people. I'm not saying every comedian needs to be genius of funny like Robin Williams, Bill Cosby, Sam Kinnison (dec.) or any other great comedian. The comedians they had were just plain old not funny. The first comedian had a joke I laughed at. The last comedian was semi-funny. The 8 comedians in between them were not however. I am not saying that no one was laughing during their routines. The pub was full of 400 Telus Employees who are currently locked out. So I guess being unemployed, and hammered made these comedians pretty funny. I however was sober, and not impressed at all by the mostly unintelligent attempt at humor. Aaron and I agreed the night was completely a bust, and that he and I can get more laughs from our day to day conversations that those people got paid for. It's sad, but I guess everyone has to start somewhere. Aaron and I started out on his porch ... soon we'll be the famous computer comedians. ¶ 5:17:00 PM
The upgrade process itself was quite painless. In place updating of all things good. It took about an hour to run the 5 CDs for the professional addition. I believe there was an update of 561 packages, 92 new packages, and 97 removed packages. That's allot of packages.
My next step forward was to finally after 6+ great years of service from the blackbox window manager to fully move into KDE 3.4. I'm not really sure why I did that, but it's done. I can always move back if I become completely fed up. My mission was to get basically the same interaction from KDE that I was used to in blackbox. It proves to be slightly harder than I thought. It took me about 15 minutes to move the kicker panel up top, and configure the Kpager to operate like bbpager did, along with the global shortcuts. I decided to leave the clock, and a Kmenu in the upper left hand corner, because I just don't know when I'll need that. ;-)
The right click menus that I customized for blackbox are not so simple to implement in KDE. I have become more familiar with the Control Center. Under the desktop behavior settings you can actually specify what action from a left, middle or right click on the mouse. I need a custom menu, as opposed to the standard menus KDE offers. My issue with KDE is that the custom menu creation interface completely sucks. I mentioned this to Aaron, and he sheepishly agreed. You can create a list of "Applications" that you can add to a monolithic list (if you happen to have a monolithic list of things you want in the menu). I mean blackbox has had the ability for submenus for ... I don't know ... years and years and years? Surely a project of KDE maturity level should allow an end user to create custom menus with sub menus available to them? Regardless I have a small menu of the applications I commonly use, and it seems to be working out for now. The only small problem is that Kontact does not launch properly from this submenu. It will launch from the Kmenu, and from the kicker panel, but will _not_ launch properly from my custom menu. It launches the Configure panel for Kontact, and that is as far as it ever gets.
The last annoyance was the fact that I had no sound! Thats right ... no sound at all. Aaron mentioned he had heard several problems with SuSE 9.3. "Things like that ..." he said ... "I didn't want to mention it on the phone while you were already half way into it". Well I did some online reading, and found a few things. I had already checked the mixer levels through kmix, and the ncurses alsamixer. Nothing seemed to work. I did completely uninstall, and re-install the alsa package. I also updated (*touched*) several KDE packages because I seemed to have newer versions than were available ... something was wrong. I altered the hardware sound volume levels through YaST. I actually had to alter them through the KDE YaST2 GUI in order for them to take hold. Magically I had sound again. A small tweaking here and there, and I was back in working order. So I am pleased, and have a working system in which I can do everything I need to on a daily basis.
I had recently had the task of adding forums into the L&Y toolkit. I didn't just jump in and start coding. I had been thinking about this for some time. I decided to do some research first. I invested (ie. wasted) around an hour looking into pre-existing solutions for BBS. I found what ones were available and compatible to be over complicated, poorly designed, or way to complex for my needs. I decided I could write my own much easier, and would do exactly what I wanted. I looked at several messages boards to see how they flowed, and to compare look and feel, features, and friendliness. I came up with a simple design and after 2 days I had integrated a full BBS system into the toolkit. It's simple, sharp looking (IMO), and light. The additions to our framework of code (which does handle the user accounts, DB abstraction, and HTML interfaces) was only 3 files. 2 PHP source files with the include library being around 500 lines, and the implementation being about 100 lines. Plus a css style sheet, and a few images. AJ is super pleased with it, and some of the users who have looked at it are impressed as well. Now we just have to completely re organize the toolkit to match their internal work flows better.
Comedy ... last night Aaron enticed me to come out with him to Dickens pub because he landed into a couple of tickets to the comedy night there. I used to go to yuk yuks at Watts On Main in Moose Jaw during my SIAST years. It was usually a great time. I've been to yuk yuks here in Calgary at the Blackfoot Inn and again it is good times. So I wasn't really in the state of going out (ie no $$), but I agreed anyways. It was a chance to get out so I took it. Let me throw something out to you ... isn't a requirement of being a comedian that you are at least semi-funny to a number of people. I'm not saying every comedian needs to be genius of funny like Robin Williams, Bill Cosby, Sam Kinnison (dec.) or any other great comedian. The comedians they had were just plain old not funny. The first comedian had a joke I laughed at. The last comedian was semi-funny. The 8 comedians in between them were not however. I am not saying that no one was laughing during their routines. The pub was full of 400 Telus Employees who are currently locked out. So I guess being unemployed, and hammered made these comedians pretty funny. I however was sober, and not impressed at all by the mostly unintelligent attempt at humor. Aaron and I agreed the night was completely a bust, and that he and I can get more laughs from our day to day conversations that those people got paid for. It's sad, but I guess everyone has to start somewhere. Aaron and I started out on his porch ... soon we'll be the famous computer comedians. ¶ 5:17:00 PM
