Untagged on Chris Irwin

Update for maildir-indicator

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 23:27:00 -0700

Follow-up to my post about using Maildirs with Ubuntu’s messaging menu.

Brad, the original author, has indicated that he considered his code to be essentially WTFPL. I feel the same about my bits, and have added a COPYING file specifically indicating this license instead of the previous GPL3 license.

I have made some other changes since that last version:

The configuration values (frequency, directories) are now loaded from separate files. Default values are in /etc/maildir-indicator.conf, user-specific in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/maildir-indicator.conf (or more likely, $HOME/.config/maildir-indicator.conf). This allows it to be installed system-wide and have users configure their own notifications.
The .desktop file has been cleaned up, and is now advertising “Maildir Indicator” instead of mutt. This is what will be read in the menu as well (though of course, clicking it runs whatever mail agent you want).
Cleaned up some debug messages to make the output a little easier to read
Changed ‘path’ to no longer have a trailing slash. I’m not sure what happens if you have a trailing slash on your paths, I didn’t test it.

The program can still be used by grabbing the source from the Maildir-Indicator repository on Gitorious and running ./maildir-indicator in the directory you get. However, it also supports being installed system-wide, which can be done easily by installing it from the maildir-indicator PPA. Installing from the PPA will also set it to run automatically at login.

My own Firefox Addon Collection

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 08:46:00 -0700

I’ve created a Firefox addon collection. This is mostly for my own use (Since firefox can’t sync addons, a single list of addons I use helps bring up machines), but I thought I’d throw it out there if anybody else was curious.

[Chris’ Addons](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/chrisirwin/chris-a/ Chris’ Addons collection at addons.mozilla.org)

Maildir with Ubuntu's Messaging Menu

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:13:00 -0700

I was pretty sure I wasn’t the only mutt user who missed having mail notifications in the indicator area. From a quick google search, it turns out I was in good company. Even better, a fellow by the name of Brad Mont actually wrote a basic python script to create an appindicator that would monitor a maildir. It was about 90% of what I was looking for.

Unfortunately, I didn’t want another icon crowding the panel, so I adapted his script to use the messaging menu, so it shows up with chat (and any other communications programs). I made a few other changes along the way (notifications). Thanks to the folks who wrote gm-notify for being such an easy to read example of both notification and the messaging menu.

I'm Internet Famous!

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 09:26:00 -0700

Assuming you’re doing a Google Image Search for a specific unicomp keyboard.

ZOMG!

Review: Unicomp Customizer 104

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 23:05:00 -0800

I’ve recently purchased a Unicomp Customizer 104. It is essentially a modern version of the old IBM Model M mechanical keyboards. I do a fair amount of typing, so I thought it would be worthwhile to invest in a better keyboard.

I’ve decided not to post photos since there seems to be no shortage of those on teh interwebs already.

The feel is very nice. It reminds me of the Model M I used to have, but unfortunately, that model is long gone and I can’t do a direct comparison. The keys are very loud, which was expected from this type of mechanism (Buckling Spring). I expected the actual mechanism to buckle roughly 50-75% of the way down so that an experienced typist can stop their finger motion before they hit the backplate. It appears that these keys require almost 95% motion, at least by my rough estimate. I consider it impossible to type without moving the key completely down. Unfortunate, but no worse than any other keyboard.

the iPad letdown

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:58:27 -0800

Okay, so the ipad is just a big ipod touch, and filling the “device too large to always have on you but too limited to do lots with” between a handy with-you smartphone and a real computer.

If it was an accessory to a computer, THEN it would be interesting. Put it on the dock and it acts like a second screen. If you’re reading a PDF or web page, you can send it to the ipad for display, grab the ipad and continue having your reference material up. How about an example:

For Twits and bookfacers

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:06:54 -0800

I’ve linked my blog to [Twitter](http://twitter.com Twitter), [Identi.ca](http://identi.ca identi.ca), and [Facebook](http://facebook.com Facebook) via [ping.fm](http://ping.fm ping dot fm) via [CR Post2Pingfm](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/cr-post2pingfm/ CR Post to Ping fm) [Twitterfeed](http://twitterfeed.com/ Twitter Feed dot com). Whew.

Hopefully this means that I will update my blog more often as there is a slight, remote chance that somebody might actually see it.

I’ve got two LUG presentations coming up: DIY debian packaging for [LOLUG](http://groups.google.ca/group/lolug London Ontario Linux Users Group) and KVM+libvirt for [KWLUG](http://kwlug.org/ Kitchener-Waterloo Linux Users Group). I’ll post slides when I present.

imagecompare

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:58:54 -0700

I’ve created a new project called imagecompare. The purpose is to detect and merge duplicate images, particularly where EXIF information may differ.

There is more information on the project page

Git

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:13:04 -0700

I’ve recently switched over to using git for revision control for my personal projects. This has made doing packaging and development substantially easier.

I also decided to use git for my resume. I’ve redone my resume in LyX (a LaTeX front end)

My Ubuntu PPA packages

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 05:35:26 -0800

I have a [PPA on Launchpad.net](https://edge.launchpad.net/~chrisirwin/+archive/ppa Chris Irwin’s PPA) now. I’ve found it substantially easier than managing my own repository. Apparently some other folks use it, so I will be posting here when I do notable updates and additions. Here is a breakdown of what is on there now:

cwi-meta and the cwi-* packages it builds. These are packages that provide PPA repository information and package dependencies for me setting up new (virtual) machines. One apt-get and I have my expected environment.
libvirt, virt-manager, and associated packages. I’m keeping these up to date for Intrepid as I am using them with kvm/qemu.
cwi-vm-builder. A wrapper around ubuntu-vm-builder. When compined with an apt proxy/cache, it can bootstrap a VM in about 2 minutes. This is my standard vm template so I can build a new VM in a single command.
task & yagtd. Two unrelated gtd-style task managers. I reccommend trying them out.

If you use my PPA, feel free to contact me with suggestions and issues. I can’t fix anything I don’t know about. Also, launchpad does not give any statistics on PPA useage, or download history. It would be nice to get a rough count of the number of users using my packages.

Bulk Import

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 07:13:55 -0800

I have imported content from my previous Wordpress blog (It was MIA for a bit). Pretty much everything older than this post is obsolete.

Things to remember

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:30:02 -0800

Here are some interesting links to keep handy. I do not think these are easy enough to come across, so I’m linking to them from here.

How to get windows to use a hardware clock set to GMT. You know, like the rest of the world.
How to grab the i-sight firmware for use with Linux. Note that the kernel in Ubuntu Feisty already has the driver part.
Some Ubuntu email server tips.

Some "Free to a good home" stuff

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 01:45:42 -0800

I have various pieces of computer equipment that I am looking to get rid of. I would much prefer to give them to somebody who can put them to a useful purpose rather than throw them out. Please contact me if you are interested.

I’m listing all components separately. While several are currently attached (motherboards + cpus) I am willing to divide up this stuff however necessary.

Free Stuff

Motherboards + CPUs

2 - 1.2GHz AMD Athlon (Thunderbird) CPUs

Need heatsinks, probably around $20 nowadays.

Ubuntu packages

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 02:26:42 -0800

I was just building some statistics of users, and apparently there are 82 unique IPs that access my package repository. This excludes my workstations. I had no idea anybody else was even using them, so “Rock On” as it were.

I’ll be creating an RSS feed soon to keep users appraised of future changes to the repository. Also, I apologize for the reorganization that happened a few weeks ago, as it probably had caused some headaches.

The Revolution will not be Televised

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 01:07:22 -0700

There is a rather interesting documentary about Hugo Chavez of Venezuala.

The Revolution will not be Televised.

WTF Yahoo

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:00:39 -0700

[ zaphod ] ~ $ ping -c 1 yahoo.com
PING yahoo.com (66.94.234.13) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from **fifaworldcup**.yahoo.net (66.94.234.13): icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=83.8 ms

--- yahoo.com ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 83.859/83.859/83.859/0.000 ms

Breaky Breaky

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:18:50 -0700

So I sent my MacBook in for repairs. The fn key seems to have come right off, which is unfortunately not only a useful key, but perhaps the most heavily-trafficked key on the entire board (being a pre-requisite of such auspicious keys such as Page-Up, and Home). Luckily, the guy at the store thinks it may be ready tomorrow – assuming they can diagnose the missing key and quickly order a replacement keyboard. I forgot to mention the wonky trackpad issue – perhaps a service ticket for another day.

Motorola e815 and Palm T3 with iSync

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 04:16:10 -0700

My old Phone sucked. It was a small Kyocera slider that had consistently horrible reception and call quality. I was able to opt for a hardware update today, and decided to jump for it. I got a Motorola e815.

It seems to have excellent call quality and reception, though I’ve only had it a few hours, so this may be rather subjective. The website linked above seems to indicate the phone does not have Java, but mine apparently does. This may be a bell mobility thing, however. I also seem to be able to transfer photos to and from the camera itself via the Apple Bluetooth tools, as well as use isync with it.

libpam-encfs

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 23:12:33 -0700

I’ve spent the time since my last post playing with encfs and libpam-encfs. It is actually rather easy to have working, and I haven’t noticed much of a slow-down for regular system use yet.

PAM Modules

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 20:41:52 -0700

Playing around with PAM modules lately, I have discovered libpam-ssh and pam-keyring. Both require some mucking about in /etc/pam.d/, but provide some worthwhile benefits.

libpam-ssh provides automatic spawning of ssh-agent, and populating ssh keys as required. This is handier than the keychain package as you do not have to enter passwords for each key, or even at all other than the initial login. The downside, of course, is that your ssh key passphrases must be the same as your system password.

Package Changes

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 20:16:03 -0700

I have changed packages.cidesign.ca again. It is now i386 only, as I do not really use ppc since I got the macbook, and I can not maintain it.

I have added updated packages for dosbox 0.65, as well as scummvm 0.9.0. I have modified scummvm to install the modern theme, and to search a system-wide path for themes (/usr/share/scummvm/themes). It seems to work alright, and looks a whole lot nicer.

Welcome to the 21st Century

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 06:16:35 -0700

So I purchased a Macbook. I waited until I had it for a bit before posting about it. I’ve only had it for two days, but am really enjoying it thus far. I will post photos later.

This is not a review. There are enough of those already.

The screen is excellent, the keyboard only takes a few minutes to get used to, the touch-pad is very natural, and the heat issues are… intermittent, and very dependent on ambient-temperature. During the day, my machine tends to idle anywhere from 50 - 60 Celsius. Night tends to drop a few degrees to 45 - 52.

Listing only Directories

Sat, 13 May 2006 22:18:25 -0700

So as part of this little repository I made for myself, I’ve built a script to regenerate the the required apt files.

But here is the issue: I’ve got a symlink called “6.06” pointing to the “dapper” directory. I don’t wish to regenerate both, as they are identical contents, and ls -d */ returns the symlink as a directory. I’ve resorted to using some command-line kung-fu to get around this, but if anybody happens to know of a better way, please let me know:

Ubuntu Packaging goodness

Sun, 07 May 2006 22:40:58 -0700

I’ve been reading up on debian packages since I’m now an Ubuntu user (Ubuntu being derived from Debian). I was previously building packages, copying them around, and manually installing and pinning versions. Today, I decided to simplify this process by creating my own package repository.

Behold, [http://packages.cidesign.ca/](http://packages.cidesign.ca/ packages.cidesign.ca).

The following lines in /etc/apt/sources.list will add this repository:

## cidesign packages
deb http://packages.cidesign.ca/ubuntu/ dapper main
deb-src http://packages.cidesign.ca/ubuntu/ dapper main

Most of the packages are from using checkinstall, so dependancies are not mapped at all. I’ll be going about doing these packages properly at some point in the future (likely when new versions are released).

Linux on the iBook updates

Fri, 05 May 2006 04:50:01 -0700

I’ve replaced the slow Hitachi 4200rpm 2MB cache hard disk in my iBook. Unfortunately the new Samsung 40GB 5400rpm 8MB cache drive seems to have horrible power management features, and gets quite hot. Though it is a very noticable upgrade, system performance is much better now.

I’ve taken this opportunity to perform a fresh install of both OSX and Ubuntu Dapper (using Beta 2 media). I’m creating a how-to page detailing special steps needed during or after install.

Birthday

Fri, 05 May 2006 03:48:14 -0700

I’m pretty bad for doing updates.

I just turned 23 on Tuesday to much fanfare and celebrations (I had dinner at Spageddy Eddy’s with Alexis ;)

Me and Chris K are having a joint birthday celebration at the Elephant & Castle, located on King and Wellington, just inside Galleria Mall. Saturday May 06 2006, about 10:00PM (I’ll be there a bit earlier to eat though). Feel free to show up, and bring whomever you would like.

Wordpress and Dapper

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 01:48:14 -0700

Well, I’ve gone back to wordpress. No real reason why, however. Typo is some very good software as well.

I’m also running Ubuntu 6.06 “Dapper Drake” on my server. “Oh cool” you may say before you realize that it is only 6.04 right now. Let me answer a few questions

“Why Dapper?” I wanted to have some neat things like Avahi, a newer mono, and a few other nicities installed. This was looking to be too troublesome with 5.10 “breezy”.