I love GTK2. It’s *uber* pretty and smooth. However, before such nice pretties came to be, there was a dark age where fonts were not so smooth and freakishly big. Unfortunately, despite modern advances, necessary applications (like the VMWare Toolbox for Linux) are still built with GTK1. …And they look like crap. Here’s a quick fix, to make the fonts look not so ugly.

1. Edit /etc/gtk/gtkrc.utf-8 and replace the 120 with 100 in the following lines:
   style “default-text” {
   fontset = “-*-arial-medium-r-normal–*-120-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1,\
   -*-helvetica-medium-r-normal–*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*”
   }
2. Copy /etc/gtk/gtkrc.utf-8 to ~/.gtkrc.mine
3. Restart X.org/XFree86 (Use Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, but be careful, it will dump you out of X without warning).

There ya go!

Here’s an external forum clip for you as well if you want a more involved solution:

http://www.compatdb.org/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/139605/page/1

This looks hella cool. It’s a dock-like app for Linux/Gnome that looks like the dock from OS X. And with all sorts of eye candy.

How to Install:

http://fredcpp.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/install-ki…

KIBA Dock on SLED 10:

http://rakeshvk.wordpress.com/2006/08/21/kiba-dock-on-sled-10/

A woman in Surrey, England couldn’t figure out why her car wouldn’t start. An Automobile Association patrolman arrived on the scene and the two realized that the woman’s dog had swallowed the car’s immobilizer chip fob. The immobilizer contains an RFID chip that must be within a certain proximity of the steering column for the key to work. According to a BBC News report, the patrolman put the dog in the front seat, turned the key, and the car started right up.Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

[ Via Engadget ]

We’re still struggling with a spat of fainting fits across the Engadget HQ, but that Nokia N95 pre-release info leak last night wasn’t no hearsay. Nokia just dropped their complete fanboy specsheet of a S60 phone in the Nokia N95 today, including a 5 megapixel camera, integrated GPS, 802.11g WiFi, HSDPA, microSD, 150MB of internal memory and pretty much any other spec you could ever care to have stuffed into your phone by a Finnish “multimedia computer” manufacturer. The 2.6-inch QVGA screen should provide plenty of room to partake in all this specification glory, and there’s a full-on 3.5mm audio jack to enjoy your multimedia in a convenient manner. Of course, that 550 euro pricetag ($700 US) wasn’t no joke neither, but luckily we have until Q1 ‘07 — that’s when they’re busting this thing out in Europe — to get all practiced up on our petty thievery. Keep reading for the pr0n.

Sweet Jesus, that’s hot. And I thought my phone (Nokia N70) was cool.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/26/nokias-n95-smartphone-goes-legit/

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bonecho/all-rc.html

http://www.shipbrook.com/onnotice/

Saw this on Kotaku.com - this is the version of the minus world from the Japanese Famicom Disk System. For those of you not quite in the know, while the North American NES had those big grey cartridges only, the Japanese version (which came out years before the North American version) had a disk drive. This is a clip from the minus world of the disk version of SMB.

Here’s the data you’ll need in the /iPod_Control/Devices/SysInfo file once you Update/Restore your iPod with iTunes 7 to be able to use the iPodLinux installer - I’m sure this will be fixed in a future release, but for now…

BoardHwName: iPod M25
pszSerialNumber: XXXXXXXXXXX
ModelNumStr: MA003
FirewireGuid: 0×000A2700147FDCA9
HddFirmwareRev: BU011A
RegionCode: FB(0×001A)
PolicyFlags: 0×00000000
buildID: 0×06118000 (6.1.1)
visibleBuildID: 0×01118000 (1.1.1)
boardHwRev: 0×00000000 (0.0 0)
boardHwSwInterfaceRev: 0×000B0005 (0.0.11 5)
bootLoaderImageRev: 0×00000000 (0.0 0)
diskModeImageRev: 0×00000000 (0.0 0)
diagImageRev: 0×00000000 (0.0 0)
osImageRev: 0×00000000 (0.0 0)
iPodFamily: 0×00000000
updaterFamily: 0×00000000

And here’s some links to what you’ll need:

• The forum page where I found this info:
  http://ipodlinux.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17508
• iPodLinux Installer2 Download:
  http://ipodlinux.org/Installer_2

• Windows Vista RC1 update (5728), English 32-Bit Edition
• Windows Vista RC1 update (5728), English 64-Bit Edition

“It’s true that for a number of years the ATMs have had a default passcode. Almost everything you buy that’s technology-based has some default password that you have to change once it becomes yours … Anyone that’s trained on how to install an ATM is taught to change that password.”

I told him about the guerilla field test I blogged yesterday — in which a computer security professional tried the Triton default passcode on the first ATM he found, and got in. Does that suggest the number of vulnerable machines is high?

“I suspect, if it’s a larger percentage than I’m hoping, that it won’t be long until most of them are changed, if not all of them … We fully intend to make sure our customers are very aware of need to change their passcodes.”

http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/index.blog?entry_id=1561329

• Drop-in on a class at Reed
• Photography course
• Biking through Forest Park
• Swings.
• Paintball
• College concerts
• Central Library
• Japanese Garden
• Papaccinos in Winter

BetaNews | Windows Live Coming to Nokia Phones

Nokia said Thursday that it had reached an agreement with Microsoft to integrate Windows Live Search into its phones, meaning consumers would be able to access the service via both Nseries and S60 phones. The agreement is the second major partnership between the two; Nokia and Microsoft joined in February to support Windows Media on select phones.

Nokia handset users would also be able to access stock quotes, movie times and the Encarta encyclopedia (in select markets) as a result of the deal. The experience would be integrated into the user interface of the phone, meaning a Web browser is not needed to access the services.

“Adding the advanced searching capabilities of Microsoft’s Live Search to our Mobile Search platform provides our customers with unique and powerful new ways to search the internet on their multimedia computers and many other compatible Nokia mobile devices,” Nokia multimedia vice president Ralph Eric Kunz said.

The application would be available in 14 languages in select markets as a standard feature on the Nokia N80 Internet Edition, Nokia N73, Nokia N93, Nokia N70, Nokia N71, Nokia 6630, Nokia 6680, and Nokia 668. Series 60 users would be able to add the functionality via a software download.

Content from Yahoo is already available on Series 60 phones through an earlier agreement signed in April 2005. That deal allows users access to Yahoo e-mail and search, as well as an area where users will be able to download wallpaper, ringtones and games.

This gave a 45 minute "recess" to at least a few hundred employees, originally uploaded by Stewart.

Contrary to popular belief, this isn’t *entirely* Dell’s fault.

It’s that bastard Sony again. As if the rootkit wasn’t enough, now they have to make exploding batteries to maim people.

225264956_a1c0a32521_o.jpg, originally uploaded by blogissue magazine.

Yep. Coolest Picture Ever.

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: The Recording Industry Will Destroy You.

THE RECORDING
INDUSTRY WILL
DESTROY YOU.
BY BRENDON LLOYD

- - - -
ATTENTION! IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 12, HAVE A PARENT READ THIS TO YOU.

- - - -

The Recording Industry Association of America has enriched your life through music since you were a baby. But now you betray us? We will destroy you. This is your notice that you will be sued for one of the following:

1. Downloading a song from the Internet.

2. Singing the “Happy Birthday” song.

3. Other.

4. None of the above.

If you would prefer not to be stripped of your home and dignity, please send us $3,750 in the return envelope. If your toddler has been named in this lawsuit, explain to them that the fruits of their labor as an adult will go to pay a debt that will ultimately lead to their death at a young age due to their inability to afford medical insurance. Toddlers never understand that, but they’ll get the point if you make them cry. If your household pet has been named in this lawsuit, it will be euthanized. If you are a 13-year-old girl, do not expect that the bad publicity in the past has made us hesitant to sue little girls—it has only made us hate you even more. If you, your household pet, or your toddler did not commit any of the acts above, then we will sue you and ruin your life forever for lying. Then we will sue you again, because it’s not about the money anymore. It’s about revenge.

BlueOregon: Democrats and the 2nd Amendment

By Zak Johnson of Portland, Oregon. Zak is one of the co-founders of the Gun Owners Caucus of the Democratic Party of Oregon.

When asked why Al Gore didn’t become president in January of 2001, most Democrats refer to the theft of Florida. Point taken. But Al Gore’s campaign spokesman, Doug Hattaway, mentions another state–Tennessee. And the reason, says Hattaway, that Gore lost his home state of Tennessee–along with the rest of the South and the Intermountain West–was because of the gun issue.

As Democrats, we OWN the civil rights issue. The Bush administration daily violates the 1st, 4th, and 5th amendments (unless you consider confessions under torture not to be self-incrimination). Tom Delay’s cronies continue to violate the 13th amendment in the U.S. Mariannas. It has never been clearer that the Democratic Party is the nation’s primary defender of the Constitution. This is an unequivocal, easy-to-understand position that resonates with voters. It’s a uniting position as well, one that should attract patriots to the Democratic banner.

Hey all,

I’m gonna switch things up a bit by writing a post with my own content! Yeah, who’da thunk it.

Anyway, this is an open letter to all you blog readers out there with a question:

What do you do to fight the funk of feeling like a cog in the machine?

I’ve been feeling mostly content lately - and nothing is going poorly, but I have been feeling a bit like everything’s a little too cyclical and routine. What do you readers do to fight that feeling? Sports, bar hopping, volunteer work, photography, underwater basketweaving?

Please leave a comment on this post with your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks!

The New Marketing : Pirate-speakin’ Google not be celebratin’ no Pirate day

From: help@google.com
Subject: Re: [#73859603]
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 10:44:27 -0700

Ahoy mate,

Thank’ee fer th’ logo ye be suggestin’. We enjoy celebratin’ horlidays at Google.

As ye may imagine, it be terrible difficult fer us t’ choose which events t’ be celebratin’ on our site. We be hav’in a long list o’ horlidays that we’d be liken’ ter celebrate in th’ future. We be hav’in ter balance this rotatin’ calendar with th’ need te be maintainin’ the likeness o’ the Google homepage.

Some horlidays that we no’ been celebratin’ in the past will be rotatin’ into our horliday doodles fer future years.

Please remember ye can be visitin’ any o’ our doodles at http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html

Arrrrrrr,
The Google Team

Mostly for my reference, since I always forget where to find it - here it is:

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bonecho/all-beta.html

DSCF3018.JPG, originally uploaded by kohsija.

TV Broadcast in Thai language announcing the Coup (Sept. 19)

Ah, I sure miss the days when our president was articulate, witty, and had an excellent grasp of the world’s affairs. *Sigh.*

09172006814, originally uploaded by willwm.

To whoever keyed my damn car last night, here’s a big:

Fuck you.

The first development snapshot of KDE 4, codenamed Krash, has been released and packages are available for Kubuntu Edgy. These are intended for developers only.

They install to /usr/lib/kde4 and can be installed alongside your existing KDE 3.

Kubuntu Edgy

• deb http://kubuntu.org/packages/kde4-3.80.1/ ./

These packages are available for i386.

Instructions:

• Add the apt sources line above.
• Install kde4base-dev, this will uninstall the normal qt4 packages and install the qt4 kdecopy packages.
• These KDE 4 packages install to /usr/lib/kde4 so run:
  • export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/kde4/lib
  • export KDEDIR=/usr/lib/kde4
  • export PATH=/usr/lib/kde4/bin/:$PATH
• Run some programmes. Konsole seems to work. Good luck.

http://kubuntu.org/announcements/kde4-3.80.1.php

This is an awesome site with archives of “Modern Science”!

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/

dumb_windows, originally uploaded by cky3.

Awesome error message.

Excellent concise how-to:

http://chromakode.blogsome.com/2006/02/16/howto-co…

…more info from the Ubuntu wiki…

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompositeManager

This is hillarious. Pictures of people jumping on hotel beds. Yep, that’s it.

Hotel Bed Jumping HQ

…and the flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrispitality/sets/72157594224674805/

Boing Boing: More Americans have now died In Iraq than died On 9/11

While President Bush and other Republican politicians spent the day exploiting the memory of those we lost five years ago, the nation overlooked a grim milestone: More Americans have now died in Iraq than died on 9/11. Iraq didn’t attack us on that day, and our misguided policy there has now taken more American lives than Al Qaeda.

Here are the numbers: 3,015 Americans have died in Iraq as of September 9.

2,666 of these were military deaths and 349 were civilians.

Boing Boing: Ambien awakens persistent vegetative state victims

This story, in today’s Guardian, is just mind-blowing. The common sleeping pill zolpidem, sold in the US under the name Ambien, can reverse serious brain damage and wake up patients in persistent vegetative states!

The hospital ward sister, Lucy Hughes, was periodically concerned that involuntary spasms in Louis’s left arm, that resulted in him tearing at his mattress, might be a sign that deep inside he might be uncomfortable. In 1999, five years after Louis’s accident, she suggested to Sienie that the family’s GP, Dr Wally Nel, be asked to prescribe a sedative. Nel prescribed Stilnox, the brand name in South Africa for zolpidem. “I crushed it up and gave it to him in a bottle with a soft drink,” Sienie recalls. “He couldn’t swallow properly then, but I helped him and sat at his bedside. After about 25 minutes, I heard him making a sound like ‘mmm’. He hadn’t made a sound for five years.

“Then he turned his head in my direction. I said, ‘Louis, can you hear me?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘Say hello, Louis’, and he said, ‘Hello, mummy.’ I couldn’t believe it. I just cried and cried.”

Wow…

• The Wooden Periodic Table Table
  (tags: Reference)

CRUCIAL EDIT:

You must now install the “x11proto-xf86dri-dev” package for this to work. I don’t know why. Please message me if you know the cause of this.

Let me pepper this with keywords in the hopes that someone won’t have to spend as much time searching for this as I did:

Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI” missing on display “:0.0″
ATI fglrx DRI radeon X1400
ATI Radeon Linux Driver Proprietary Xorg

Ok. Now that’s done, here’s the fix. Took me a week to find this, but it seems to work fine now:

1. sudo apt-get install fglrx
2. aticonfig –initial
3. Edit xorg.conf, add the following lines:
   

   Section "Extensions"
Option “Composite” “disable”
EndSection

Now it works!

WATER

• 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (This likely applies to half the world population.)
• In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.
• Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as much as 3%.
• One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied (in a University of Washington study).
• Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
• Preliminary research indicates that 8 to 10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
• A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
• Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

COKE

• In many states the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
• You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days.
• To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the “real thing” sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
• To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
• To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
• To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
• To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.
• To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains.
• Coke will also clean road haze from your windshield.
• FOR YOUR INFORMATION:
• The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about four days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.
• To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the “Hazardous Material” place cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.
• The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!
• Now the question is, would YOU like a glass of water or Coke?

Water vs. Coke

• YouTube - RC Car Jumps House
  (tags: YouTube Video)

Kristian Høgsberg and fedora fixes are now integrated in edgy xorg. You can now install compiz on aiglx without xorg-air!

http://gandalfn.wordpress.com/howto-compiz-aiglx-on-edgy/

Our anonymous AOL call center insider mailed us again, this time with a scan of the Rosetta Stone that AOL’s CSRs use to translate your strange gibberish asking for account cancellation into a language that they can understand: “Keep me signed up!”

Click on it to enlarge. The most important thing to notice here when trying to cancel your AOL account is the “Cancel Billing Close”, located at the bottom of the scan. It reads:

Okay, I’m canceling billing on your account as of today. Keep in mind you can continue to use your AOL Mail and Software for free as long as you’d like to use them. Since we are no longer providing your Internet connection, we still want you to be able to enjoy AOL. You’ll no longer be charged a monthly membership fee! for AOL. Does that take care of everything?

Most people at this point say “Yes!” but our correspondent warns us that, really, what you want to do is emphatically say “No. I want to be completely cancelled, not migrated to the free service.” AOL’s free service, after all, is a slippery slope. Our correspondent says: “If you say NO to the Cancellation Close - only then can we cancel and give a cancellation number.”

http://consumerist.com/consumer/aol/aols-guide-to-…

Research In Motion on Thursday introduced its latest BlackBerry phone called “Pearl,” which takes a more stylish approach to handset design in attempt to appeal to both business users and consumers alike. Not much bigger than Motorola’s iconic RAZR, the Pearl is BlackBerry’s smallest phone to date.

In order to cut down on size, the handset’s keyboard has been shrunk in half by assigning two letters to each button. The Pearl is also much slimmer than its predecessors, taking a key from Motorola’s playbook and resulting in a phone that is only 0.57 inches thick and weighs just 3.1 ounces.

http://www.betanews.com/article/RIM_Introduces_Bla…

http://www.blackberrypearl.com/

Easy Ubuntu is easy, graphical and safe.

• All the modified files are backed up.
• Unless you ask for it, your sources.list is not modified.
• EasyUbuntu can be translated into your language
• Runs on Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu without installing additional
  software.

http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/overview.html

How do fans love Storm? Let them count both the ways and the lanky inches, for there are many, many, many of them. But the rocker’s impressive height is certainly not the only stand-out quality that makes Storm Large so exceptionally memorable. Even if she wasn’t six feet tall, you’d still feel like a midget standing next to her–so enormous is her talent.

In her critically acclaimed (the press loves Storm) and always-packed revue in a little club in Portland, Oregon, Storm and her band The Balls have collected a devoted following of fans who not only witness one gorgeous, sexy, fearless babe with balls-to-the-wall, tear-the-house-down vocal chops, but an oftentimes ingenious stage performer. A formidable, commanding and one-of-a-kind performer with an inspired, beautiful and ferocious voice, Storm’s been described by some as almost transcendental. To put it in more simple terms, you’re never bored when Storm’s in the house.

http://rockstar.msn.com/rockers2/Storm

The original 1960s Star Trek series will receive a high-tech makeover and return to broadcast syndication for the first time in 16 years, with digitally remastered episodes, Paramount announced. In honor of the show’s 40th anniversary, CBS Domestic Television is releasing all 79 episodes with new special effects and music on 200 stations, beginning Sept. 16. The first batch of episodes will be chosen from a list of fan favorites.

SCI FI Wire | The News Service of the SCI FI Channel

Associated Press
September 7, 2006, 6:12 AM PDT
A television reporter investigating a suspected real estate scam was attacked by a woman and her husband, who punched and tackled him as a cameraman videotaped the incident.
Video: Investigative Reporter Attacked On Camera

Reporter John Mattes of Fox 6 News said he was treated for cracked ribs, bite wounds and cuts to his face after the confrontation Tuesday. The couple, identified by authorities as Assad “Sam” Suleiman, 36, and his wife, Rosa Amelia Barraza, 33, were arrested.

http://ktla.trb.com/news/ktla-reporterattacked,0,1…

Steve Irwin was passion, personified., originally uploaded by violinsoldier.

R.I.P, buddy.

• ATI Radeon X.Org Driver
  (tags: Linux Software Drivers ATI)
• ATI Linux Driver FAQ
  (tags: ATI Drivers Linux)
• Frequently Asked Questions - openSUSE
  (tags: Howto Reference Linux SUSE)
• DriverHeaven.net: ATI on Linux (Radeon X1400)
  (tags: ATI Linux Drivers)

This cracks me up. Supposedly, it’s a “training site for TSA agents” to determine what is and is not a bomb, in light of current mistakes… Hillarious.

http://www.bombornot.com

• Photoshop Reference Guide > Creating a Killer Panorama
  (tags: Design Photography Photoshop Tutorials)

• MusikCube - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (tags: Software OpenSource Windows Music)
• KDE-Cygwin (KDE on Windows!)
  (tags: Computing OpenSource Software Windows Cygwin KDE)

1. Firefox - Hands down, the best web browser available. Viva la Gecko!
2. Flock - Hands down, the *second* best web browser available, and only because it’s based on Firefox code, which is already #1. Flock allows you to connect to your favorite services (flickr, blogger, del.icio.us, and more) seamlessly.
3. Gaim - Multi-protocol chat client, connects to MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Jabber, and more.
4. Thunderbird - Best mail client and RSS feed reader combo I’ve found. From Mozilla, like Firefox.
5. FrostWire - LimeWire’s closest brother; essentially the same program and completely free.
6. Media Player Classic - “Compact, but powerful media player. Plays anything under the sun. No install necessary.”
7. Paint.NET - Sweet ass replacement for Windows Paint - and *tons* more features. Not quite as many as GIMP, but loads a bit faster. And, I’m a .NET progammer, so I like that about it too.
8. µTorrent - Itsy bitsy BitTorrent client that doesn’t need an installer. One standalone EXE. Nice!
9. electric sheep - Not quite an app (it’s a screensaver), but it’s the trippiest/prettiest screensaver I’ve seen yet. Also works on Linux.
10. OpenOffice.org - Of course, no list is complete without the most productive OSS app out there. Near drop-in replacement to Microsoft Office, completely free, and even works with ODF format (instead of that nasty proprietary Office .DOC/.XLS format)

More downloads, and a more complete list are available at these links:

• OpenSourceWindows.org
• OSSWin Project