...and, if you use a laptop with nVidia graphics and want to extend/clone your screen output to an external monitor or projector, you will, too.
Disper is a python-based command line app and can be downloaded from here. I don't think there are any prerequisites except the nVidia packages and basic Python, and potentially xrandr. Install with make /sudo make install.
The beauty of disper is that it automatically and quite intelligently fits your screen resolution and panning to the detected displays.
25/02/2010
10/02/2010
State of Pymorph Address
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears:
Ahem.
Actually, I was just looking for a quick 'n dirty Python morphology library to do a kind of string length image analysis and pymorph looked promising. Sadly, a major overhaul seems to be going on there right now, so while the actual code I ended up with is nice, short and robust, getting there was quite a pain.
Pymorph's old (<= 0.8) version has some very helpful demonstration pages, which have to be adapted for the new version (0.92 - and I found nothing but win32 packages for 0.8). Some hints are given on the developer's page, but quite a lot one has to figure out for oneself - mostly formatting issues.
Ahem.
Actually, I was just looking for a quick 'n dirty Python morphology library to do a kind of string length image analysis and pymorph looked promising. Sadly, a major overhaul seems to be going on there right now, so while the actual code I ended up with is nice, short and robust, getting there was quite a pain.
Pymorph's old (<= 0.8) version has some very helpful demonstration pages, which have to be adapted for the new version (0.92 - and I found nothing but win32 packages for 0.8). Some hints are given on the developer's page, but quite a lot one has to figure out for oneself - mostly formatting issues.
19/01/2010
Rotating my screen output
or: Who ate my xorg.conf?
Oh. SuSE did, as the xorg.conf file is deprecated for newer versions of Xorg. Right.
Which posed a bit of a problem, as I needed the file to make xrandr work. Xrandr is a console app able to flip your screen by multiples of 90° (actually, it can do a lot more) via
xrandr -o left #right, inverted, normal
Oh. SuSE did, as the xorg.conf file is deprecated for newer versions of Xorg. Right.
Which posed a bit of a problem, as I needed the file to make xrandr work. Xrandr is a console app able to flip your screen by multiples of 90° (actually, it can do a lot more) via
xrandr -o left #right, inverted, normal
18/01/2010
Samsung SCX-4200 on SuSE 11.2
First problem: Samsung Universal driver nowhere to be found, at least not in the download links for this model. Well, it's supposed to be universal, isn't it, so I got the tar archive from the SCX-4300 download page.
Installation: untar, cd to cdroot/Linux, ran sudo ./install.sh and followed the console instructions. And yes, the scx-4200 was included. What worked out of the box: Scanning, both xsane and skanlite interfaces. Printing worked for all kinds of files and apps except PDF from whichever source, which is a bit of a bummer.
Installation: untar, cd to cdroot/Linux, ran sudo ./install.sh and followed the console instructions. And yes, the scx-4200 was included. What worked out of the box: Scanning, both xsane and skanlite interfaces. Printing worked for all kinds of files and apps except PDF from whichever source, which is a bit of a bummer.
08/01/2010
console copy without overwriting
To copy an arbitrary number of files without overwritting existing ones, use:
yes n | cp -i <source> <destination>
Found here.
Note that this does not work for scp, as there is no -i option. A workaround proposed here suggests setting previously copied files read-only - which you can't do on FAT or NTFS partitions, btw.
yes n | cp -i <source> <destination>
Found here.
Note that this does not work for scp, as there is no -i option. A workaround proposed here suggests setting previously copied files read-only - which you can't do on FAT or NTFS partitions, btw.
07/01/2010
timidity vs my USB sound card
timidity refused to play MIDI files with cryptic error messages:
can't create mcop directory
and, after I had created /tmp/ksocket-<myuser>:
can't create mcop directory
and, after I had created /tmp/ksocket-<myuser>:
sh: arts-start: command not found
Couldn't open output device
It turns out that the problem lay with my USB sound card, which I had set as the primary card in YaST to get the sound output from online flash movies etc. on it (Firefox is not handled by Phonon, so you have to do it permanently via YaST), and which I had unplugged. Setting the on-board card as the primary card again solved the issue. I suppose plugging in the USB card might also help, but I don't have it with me right now.
Couldn't open output device
28/12/2009
How to dismantle a Verbatim 3.5'' SmartDrive
Most external drive cases are absolutely self-explanatory, this one is a bit scary (too many plastic notches and bendable stuff). If you've still got a choice, better get a completely unscrewable one like the Western Digital model with the silicone covers.
You need: a small Phillips screwdriver and a spudger or Mum's nail file. The drive inside is SATA (in my case, a Samsung HD103SI).
22/12/2009
Frescobaldi opening Kile
Today frescobaldi surprised me by opening source code references from PDF annotations in Kile. Hey, I love Kile! Still, not very practical.
Solution: open an external instance of Okular, go to Settings->Configure Okular…->Editor, choose Custom Text Editor instead of Kile (the command should read frescobaldi --smart --line %l --column %c), apply, restart frescobaldi and you should be good to go again. Apart from the fact that now your LaTeX source code annotations will be opened in frescobaldi…
Solution: open an external instance of Okular, go to Settings->Configure Okular…->Editor, choose Custom Text Editor instead of Kile (the command should read frescobaldi --smart --line %l --column %c), apply, restart frescobaldi and you should be good to go again. Apart from the fact that now your LaTeX source code annotations will be opened in frescobaldi…
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