Wednesday, July 27. 2005ALSA, Good Weather
Does anyone know anything about ALSA device name and plugs? The new Xine Config dialog is kind of full thanks to the fact that xine has a different configuration for sound devices depending on how many channels are being played.
For instance, by default the mono device for xine-lib is simply default and 6-channel sound is plug:surround51:0 Would there by some way to let the user specify which device they want to use (that's the goal, let users who have two sound cards specify which they want) and have that apply to all the channel settings? I don't think users have a need to change the plug settings, so it seems like it should be possible. I've looked at the xine-lib source code, it appears the device is being sent directly to the ALSA lib more or less. And now I refer you to Konversation's /weather script: Current Weather for Columbia, Columbia Regional Airport : Clear skies, Temperature: 71.1°F, Pressure: 30.15" Hg, Wind: 10 MPH N To translate, its great weather. Missouri's weather could be described as polarized: it can get really cold in winter and really hot in the summer. The Intermediate Value Theorem means its occasionally nice. Today is one of those days. Yesterday a cold front brought in some needed rain and today we're somehow having the cold front without the rain. Nice especially since we've just had a week or so of body temperature weather (to express it in a metric/imperial-neutral fashion). So when I went to desposit my check at the bank I proceded to go down a path to a creek and watch fishs for about 15 minutes. Then I skipped a few rocks, remembered I'm not any good at that, and just starting throwing large rocks.  Wednesday, July 27. 2005ALSA, Good WeatherDoes anyone know anything about ALSA device name and plugs? The new Xine Config dialog is kind of full thanks to the fact that xine has a different configuration for sound devices depending on how many channels are being played. For instance, by default the mono device for xine-lib is simply default and 6-channel sound is plug:surround51:0 Would there by some way to let the user specify which device they want to use (that's the goal, let users who have two sound cards specify which they want) and have that apply to all the channel settings? I don't think users have a need to change the plug settings, so it seems like it should be possible. I've looked at the xine-lib source code, it appears the device is being sent directly to the ALSA lib more or less. And now I refer you to Konversation's /weather script: Current Weather for Columbia, Columbia Regional Airport : Clear skies, Temperature: 71.1°F, Pressure: 30.15" Hg, Wind: 10 MPH N To translate, its great weather. Missouri's weather could be described as polarized: it can get really cold in winter and really hot in the summer. The Intermediate Value Theorem means its occasionally nice. Today is one of those days. Yesterday a cold front brought in some needed rain and today we're somehow having the cold front without the rain. Nice especially since we've just had a week or so of body temperature weather (to express it in a metric/imperial-neutral fashion). So when I went to desposit my check at the bank I proceded to go down a path to a creek and watch fishs for about 15 minutes. Then I skipped a few rocks, remembered I'm not any good at that, and just starting throwing large rocks.  Wednesday, July 27. 2005Patch For Scrollbars Without Arrow Buttons
I realised some time ago that I never actually use the arrow buttons on scrollbars (especially in KDE, since KDE has intelligent mouse-wheel handling). So, since to me they are a waste of space, I made a patch to remove the arrow buttons, here's a screenshot (300 KiB). The patch applies against recent SVN, and prolly most of KDE 3.x, but this isn't tested.If you try it against a stable KDE release and it applies and works, then please say so in the comments, thanks!
One issue I've found is that now it's hard to tell the scrollbar is actually a scrollbar. The arrow buttons are the key part when visually recognising that the widget is in fact a scrollbar and not just some button or a part of the frame-decoration. Also the patch doesn't work well with the GTK-Qt widget engine, but I know how to fix this, I just can't be bothered yet. There is no option in preferences, you just have to have no arrow buttons. Maybe one day I'll make it a proper patch with config dialog checkbox, etc. But not yet! I hope the patch is liked by some people. Apply like so: /your_SVN_root/trunk/KDE/kdelibs/$ patch < no_scrollbar_arrow_buttons.SVN_2005_07_24.diff Please note, in the screenshot, the score of 15 for Mike Oldfield's amaroK is partly because, as an amaroK developer, the scores in my collection are mostly bogus (due to testing), and also because the score deciding algo isn't too fair for longer tracks (this one is 60 minutes long). In fact love that track! Wednesday, July 27. 2005Sunday, July 24. 2005OMFG mxcl! Where have you been?
I stepped out for a toilet break and next thing I know, I had been kidnapped by the XMMS people! In chains, they dragged me to their secret hideout. At first they made me wear a princess Leia golden bikini while standing on a table and dancing the funky-chicken. They say you can find the pictures out on the web somewhere. My girlfriend says she's not sure she likes the look.
Once they had become bored by my gyrations (I'd gotten pretty good after 12 hours without food or water), I was locked in a 4 foot cubic steel safe. There was a hole at the top and they would spend most of their time shouting at me, asking me how amaroK had come out of nowhere and was now threatening their monopoly of the *nix music-player market. Knowing what was best for me, I kept quiet and silently played that the amaroK-crew would find me and rescue me, somehow. Throughout my dark, uncomfortable trial, I kept hold of that one thought. There must have been a window in the room I was encased in, because at roughly mid-afternoon everyday a narrow beam of light would shine down into my cramped cell. I could just about twist my head enough to gaze longingly at its magnificent splendor. A narrow beam of light to bring me hope. Well I say that now, but at the time it was actually a royal-PITA as the glare was quite blinding and gave me regular headaches. Yesterday, as I was eating my evening meal of dogfood and cigarette ash, I heard an almighty bang, folowed by the sound of debris scattering everywhere. For a few drawn-out seconds there was no sound, then shouting filled the midst. They had come for me and I was saved! Well so I thought. Actually the XMMS people were playing a game of Half Life 2, and they'd just turned up the volume at that particular moment. But it turned out OK, as the next day I was released. They muttered something about their mothers saying they couldn't play with me anymore, or something. ___________________ Actually I moved house and then in the two weeks I didn't have Internet, my email account filled up with so much mail that my email provider's mail servers choked when I tried to download any (donhost are ridiculously rubbish). Also in that time I'd had a birthday and was bought World of Warcraft. So without regular mailing list contact and with a game that ruthlessly steals your life away from under your mouse-hand, I slipped away from Linux, KDE and amaroK. But then I got some web-development work and rediscovered KDE, so now I suppose I'll be "back". I'm going to akademy and would like to do some amaroK stuff again. I also released Codeine 1.0-rc1 which is my simple, usable (IMO at least) video player. I'll prolly blog on that soon. ___________________ People tell me they were worried about me. I don't want to look gun-ho about my absence with the above post, so I want to reiterate here that I'm really sorry I made no contact. I never meant to cause concern. Sunday, July 24. 2005Saturday, July 16. 2005Quarter MasterSaturday, July 16. 2005Friday, July 15. 2005The Rules of IRC Support
After finally getting my act together, I have written down the rules for IRC support that I've been playing around with for so long
While they exist on my website, I was told that it would be a good topic for my first blog entry  So, here you go:1 Ask, don't ask to askYou are on IRC, and we are here to help eachother. You are always allowed to ask a question, so asking for permission to ask a question is entirely silly, and will only increase the time between your wishing an answer to a question and getting the actual answer. Introductions are good, but don't wait for a response before asking your question. 2 Be exhaustiveTo be able to give a good answer, the question must also be a good one. Make sure when you construct your inquiry that you are exhaustive when describing the problem. This could be the version of the program, the versions of any libraries that might be interesting, which operating system and version you are running the program on, or indeed any other relevant information. In short, give people information to work with. Saying that the program doesn't work is hardly enough information to be able to give you a proper solution to remedying that situation. 3 WaitIRC may be instant communication, however a concept exists on IRC called idling, something which means that while people's names might appear in the list of names of the people in an IRC channel, they may not actually be physically present at the computer. Sometimes they may have gone off for a longer while, maybe even to work or elsewhere that might take hours until they return. What this means is that, while the person with the answer to your question may be present in the user list, they might not be able to answer your question before a while later, sometimes even hours. So, remember to wait. Asking a question and then only waiting a few minutes before quitting is not helpful, neither to you or the person who might be able to help you out. They are there to help you, they would in all probability not be there otherwise, but if you won't wait around and let them help you, you are not letting them help you. 4 Help yourselfIf the answer to a question is for example "Read the FAQ", it means that you are in no way the first person to ask the question, and that an answer is already available elsewhere. So, remember to try helping yourself first, before asking others to do it for you. Documents were written to help you, by people who want to help you, they were not written to take up space on a website. 5 Give back to othersAfter you have received your help, remember that you are now in possession of information that could help someone else with the same problem. You are now in a position where you can help others. Just as people have helped you, others might now benefit greatly from your help. 6 Remember yourselfWhen presenting others with help, remember that you were in this position yourself once. These people are not stupid, they have simply not yet received the knowledge you possess. Friday, July 15. 2005Why Today is Good
A couple of weeks ago I figured out I could quit my job about a month and a half early (I had been planning to quit the last week of August) and have enough money. Meaning that if I kept on working, that would be greedy, and I can't have that. ^^ Probably more relevant I need to work on a couple of websites before school starts. So, I gave my two-week-notice with today as my last day since its also the end of this pay period.
Only later did I put two and two together and realize that its also the night of the Harry Potter release. I had already been looking forward to today, since I get off work at 23:00 about two blocks from the Barnes and Noble. Some friends I haven't in a while should be there as well. So while today should be awesome, I predict work will progress very slowly. Consider this perfect storm:
Outside of the website work, I should also start having time to get back into amaroK development. Here is my personal todo list, published to provide some pressure on myself:
Friday, July 15. 2005Why Today is GoodA couple of weeks ago I figured out I could quit my job about a month and a half early (I had been planning to quit the last week of August) and have enough money. Meaning that if I kept on working, that would be greedy, and I can't have that. ^^ Probably more relevant I need to work on a couple of websites before school starts. So, I gave my two-week-notice with today as my last day since its also the end of this pay period. Only later did I put two and two together and realize that its also the night of the Harry Potter release. I had already been looking forward to today, since I get off work at 23:00 about two blocks from the Barnes and Noble. Some friends I haven't in a while should be there as well. So while today should be awesome, I predict work will progress very slowly. Consider this perfect storm:
 Outside of the website work, I should also start having time to get back into amaroK development. Here is my personal todo list, published to provide some pressure on myself:
Friday, July 1. 2005 |
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