eee PC

So Overlord is getting an eee PC 900 before me. Grrrr... Damn my need to save money for various things I might not even need it for. Soon my pretty, soon...

Kick ass and chew gum

LyX Crashes Under Ubuntu Hardy

Application: LyX
Distribution: Ubuntu 8.04 - Hardy Heron
Problem: Crashes opening valid .lyx files

I had a problem recently where LyX was crashing every time I attempted to open a file (through both the file open dialog and double-clicking a .lyx file). After some hunting around Google I found the following solution.

It turns out that the problem was a version mismatch with another package I wouldn't have even thought of looking at. I like to have all the repositories checked in my software sources list, as do a fair few people it seems, and this was the source of the problem. In Hardy Backports is version 4.4 of the Qt libraries, and LyX does not like them at all. The problem seems to be particularly focused around the loading of eps images, which are almost every document I produce, thus the near-constant crashing. I managed to force a document open by launching in excess of 100 instances of it simultaneously, but that's so ridiculous I don't think anyone could think of it as a workaround.

Anyway, the solution is to uninstall any qt4 related packages (do a search for qt in Synaptic and they will be fairly obvious), and uncheck Hardy Backports. LyX and Skype will be removed when you do the uninstall, so put those back on afterwards and they'll bring in the correct version of the Qt4 libraries.

This also solved a problem I was having with GnuCash's icon not displaying. This was fixed on two computers via this method, so I don't think it was coincedence.


I will add some links to relevant discussion when I have a moment free.

Random IMs - Uptime

Keht> there is an ircop here on efnet that has been idle for 3 years
Ryvern> 3 yrs idle?
Ryvern> and somehow he never pinged out in 3 yrs?
Kemp-> lol, did he die and leave it switched on?
Keht> i guess
Kemp-> his relatives are going to have a huge electricity bill
Ryvern> yeah, but
Ryvern> 3 yrs without a disconnect
Ryvern> i mean
Ryvern> DAMN
Kemp-> uptime for the win though
Ryvern> no shit
Ryvern> that's defo a record
Kemp-> lol, "he may be dead, but DAMN his uptime is impressive"

Random IMs - Scone Revolution

Names removed as they were traceable to actual email accounts. Spam is bad mm'kay.

xx: my brother said to my mom that was a revolution here
me: lol, a revolution?
me: that would be pathetic in england, we'd throw scones at each other and then have afternoon tea

Silverlight FAQ Fail

I won't do a detailed post here, just an amusing aside. The Silverlight FAQ (MS's new Flash clone) doesn't seem to like any browser I have available. In summary...

IE6:
Renders completely wrong but functions as it should

Firefox 2:
Renders perfectly but doesn't work right

Who exactly were they targetting? (Yes, IE7, I know, but how hard is it to get an FAQ to render properly?)

Random IMs - Groping of Eden

Kemp: there's a painting of the garden of eden with adam trying to stop eve taking the apple from the tree. just looks like he's grabbing her breast
Overlord: "Just a bit of harmless fun"
Overlord: (drums)
Kemp: http://www.fictionwise.com/knight/titian.adam&eve.jpg
Kemp: there we go
Overlord: hahahaha
Overlord: "Let's see, grab the arm and physically stop her, or cop a feel. Hmmm"
Kemp: "we're screwed anyway, go for the breast"

Power Feature

On the morning of Saturday 16th February, work will be carried out to connect up the new mains cable. As with last night, our aim is to maintain a full IT service as far as is possible, but (as already stated) there are some attendant risks and some temporary service interruptions could be a feature.

(emphasis mine)

It does sound like the standard cry of "it's not a bug, it's a feature!" and it amused me for a moment or two. Unfortunately, the programming definition of a feature isn't the global definition. A quick Google search gives me:

• a prominent aspect of something; "the map showed roads and other features"
• have: have as a feature; "This restaurant features the most famous chefs in France"

which make more sense.

Still, I was amused.

"coerce" Brits into national ID register

Article link
Mirrored document

XP Fail

My XP install is effectively hosed. Complete failure to boot (fixed with some knowledge and a *lot* of luck), all copies of UPP considered viruses (including archived and untouched copies), failure of windows update, not to mention several long-running issues involving mysterious cpu/disk usage (not virus related afaict) and random crashes (graphics related but not app or driver version specific).

I read from the Book of Ripley: "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

Random IMs - EOD Ducks

Kemp: so tempted to slip something random into a presentation and see if I can make it seem relevant
Overlord: "This plastic duck, while seemingly irrelevent and appearing to be, on the surface, a chance to win a bet with some friends, is actually a highly integral part of the project"
Kemp: ducks, being a largely water-based animal, do not have experience defusing explosive devices. this means that the system does not need to be designed to take account of duck physiology. this narrowing of requirements was an important initial step in the project.
Kemp: irrelevant requirements, which appear useful at the beginning of a project, are often responsible for project failure
Kemp: do I do this too much?
Overlord: Yes =P
Overlord: But it was impressive enough that it took me 3 reads to realise there are plenty of LAND based animals with no experience of defusing explosives =P
Kemp: lol, kemp wins

Edit:
For those not in the know, EOD = Explosive Ordnance Disposal. And yes, LAN party post soon.

xkcd Rock Band

xkcd gets it right as always. It happened with Guitar Hero and it'll happen with Rock Band. Clue for those who say this stuff: it's fun, we have fun playing it, it's a game. Saying it's stupid because it's not like playing a real guitar is like saying UT3 is stupid because you're not really slaughtering the Necris army, or Risk is stupid because you're not really taking over the world.

Edit:
And yes, LAN party post soon. Too much writing for now.

Happy New Year

As the title says. Hope you all had a good time. LAN party post to follow, probably tonight when I'm back in Cov and have some time.

Think Before Clicking

I see a new MSN account details phishing site is making the rounds *sighs* A little hint for the less net-aware among us: if you click a link to was sent to you out of the blue and end up at a site asking for your account details (especially if the domain of the site you end up at has nothing to do with the link you clicked), then don't fill them in. Ever.

This time round it's http://www.free-offers-your-clicks.com (no, I'm not making it into an actual link), leading to http://www.blockdelete.com/ and all the fancy shaded colouring contained therein. If you check the Terms of Use they make it fairly clear that they'll be using your account details themselves, so I can't really fault them on that one. But really, it's not an official website in any way, if you randomly give your details out to these people then it's your own fault =P

Water Supply Fail

It's a classic scenario really. It's morning, 2.5 hours until my presentation (a mere 15 minute walk away luckily). I head for the shower, turn it on, nothing. Kemp gets slightly worried at this point. Try some taps, still nothing. Kemp gets very worried. Phone's the water company, it can take them up to 4 hours to find the problem and up to 24 hours to fix it. Kemp gives up.

I have 1.25 hours left until the presentation, let's see how this one plays out...


Update:
The water company (who don't so much charge me as anally violate me) phoned back and effectively said "it's not our problem". Did I say "effectively"? They pretty much said those exact words. Anywho, we've all been bitching at management and apparently they have someone working on it now and it might (*might*) be back up tonight. It has taken them about 12 hours to figure out the pump is broken. I could have told them that this morning, mostly due to my amazing ability to see the blatantly obvious...

Also, I did my presentation, I rocked. Thank you.


Update 2:
It's the next morning (3 minutes til afternoon in fact), still not on. What do we even pay these guys for? It's now between 30 and 36 hours since the problem occurred. The water company may suck at a lot of things, but at least they check it out within 4 hours (not 12) and quote 24 hours for the usual repair time (not the 48 that this is starting to look like). [Insert more rant here]


Update 3:
Well we've had two more excuses since my last update. The first was that they didn't have the key for the closet/room/whatever with the pump in, so they had to call a locksmith out (just how incompetent *is* the management?). The second was that they can't find anyone who can replace that particular pump. How about the guys who put it in in the first place? It's only a couple of years or so old. Surely the high-tech exciting world of water pumps can't move that fast?

OpenOffice Updates

OpenOffice updates: a renamed splash graphic and a library moved from one package to another.

Number of packages affected: 21
Total update size: 75MB

Modular my ass =P

Random IMs - Squishie Kemp

Overlord: XD
Overlord: Remind me not to get on your bad side
Overlord: =P
Kemp: lol, but I'm so soft and fuzzy
Overlord: PLUSHIE KEMP
Kemp: :O
Kemp: with foam accessories like a laptop and guitar
Overlord: And a USB PORT
Overlord: Kemp the Mass Storage Device
Kemp: THIS MUST EXIST

More Audio in Ubuntu

The first part of this is an addition to my earlier post on audio in Ubuntu. If you want a bit more detail about what you're doing with that fix then check out the original source, which also has some other useful links. After applying the fix I had problems with my sound crackling rather more than I like to hear. If you have similar problems then check out the Dmix page on the ALSA wiki, specifically the "Still Hearing Stuttering?" and "Comments" sections near the bottom. I haven't tried that extra modification myself (I was in the middle of something at the time and just disabled mixing again), but it looks promising and easy to do. That page is a goldmine of information about modifying your setup so it may be worth taking a bit of extra time to read through.

Ok, with that out of the way, how about visualisations in Rhythmbox? I use that as my audio player and I'm quite happy with it except it only has two visualisations available (I don't use them much, but they do amuse me so I like to have a few). Luckily information on this is easy to find and it turns out you need to install the libvisual-0.4-plugins package. I had a slight problem with one of them causing Rhythmbox to crash, but that may just be my setup as I don't recall seeing any warnings.

Enjoy :-)

Random IMs - Powerloss and Cows

Kate: hmm. lights keep going down here, bit worrying
Kemp: ninja attacks?
Kate: apparently one of the substations of something set on fire and they're sorting it out
Kate: so hopefully won't go off completely
Kemp: eek
Kate: would be bad seeing as the only power to our flat is electric. no gas!
Kemp: same here
Kate: and i really want a shower before i go to bed cos I was rectalling cows for an hour today!
Kemp: I love your job ^^

Random IMs - Ninja Football

Third blog post of the day :-o No intro this time, I'll let the quotes do the talking.

ErEf> what kind of football game needs to be 3.5gb?
ErEf> ffs
Kemp-> one involving ninjas
Kemp-> high enough res to see them
ErEf> you would need a lot more than 3.5gb to see a ninja clearly
Kemp-> not clearly, just enough to know roughly where they are
ErEf> ah
ErEf> still would need around 4.2 tho
Kemp-> "Ok, something's happening... erm... looks like someone has the ball, someone in black. GOOOOOOAAAAALLLLL!!!! Where did that come from? No-one here knows."

And elsewhere...

Overlord: XD
Overlord: How much detail would you need to CLEARLY see a ninja
Kemp: we don't have enough space available to find out
Kemp: nor sufficiently advanced camera technology