Vim Powerline

I was recently introduced to Powerline, which is an awesome addition to Vim, giving you a more informational status bar, as well as a python script to patch your font for a very fancy unicode symbol. I've written a more detailed article in FCM #59, due out later this month. However, if you're curious what it looks like when used in a prompt, you can check out my most recent screenshot on DeviantArt (here).

This is easily installed into Vim using vundle (links below). Essentially you tell vundle to install Lokaltog/vim-powerline, and then run the patch from ~/.vim/bundle/vim-powerline/fontpatcher/ (as detailed in the README in that folder). Once you've done that you can simply configure Powerline to use the fancy theme, and copy that symbol into your PS1. This would probably also work for tty screens, though you'd need to patch that font separately.

For a more thorough description of the process, please check out Command & Conquer in Full Circle Magazine #59. If you can't wait for FCM to be released, leave a comment below with your questions, and I'll get back to you as quickly as possible.

Links:

Powerline

Vundle

Xorg tty switching is wrong

I found this issue (literally about 10 minutes ago) on my PC after a recent update. Basically, in any tty screens switching was the normal ctrl+alt+Fx setup, but the moment I tried to do the same from my xserver, I wasn't able to do so. For some reason, the keyboard shortcut from X was shift + Fx, which is a keybinding often used by other programs (Blender, for example). After a bit of looking (and googling, though I didn't find much in the way of concise answers), I found out that it was due to my .Xmodmap file I was using. For whatever reason, the entries for my F1-F12 keys were totally messed up. A bit of trial and error didn't let me figure out the correct entries, so I simply reset my keyboard (setxkbmap de), and then found the entry (xmodmap -pke|grep VT). Turns out that the entries should look as follows:

keycode 67 = F1 F1 F1 F1 F1 F1 XF86Switch_VT_1

I figured I should document this here, in case anyone else has a similar issue (or if I have the issue again...). For anyone too lazy to count, that is 6 F1's, and on the 7th entry, you write XF86Switch_VT_1 (or replace F1 and VT_1 with whatever Fx key you're working on). Once you've updated your .Xmodmap file, simply reload it with xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap (you may need to change the path if you're using a different one).

Audio - Multiple Inputs to one set of speakers

I recently purchased myself a 4-way audio selector (this), and some 3.5mm jack to RCA adapters, allowing me to easily switch audio inputs between my xbox, PC, laptop (or tablet/phone) to my single set of speakers at my desk, making life a lot easier. The alternative was to a) hook my xbox up to the aux input on my speakers (but my xbox is much louder than my PC) and b) constantly switch said aux input. In total I spent about 25€ on this, and that's including all the cables I needed. If anyone is looking to do something similar, I highly recommend something like this.

The box is fairly small and unobtrusive, and has anti-slip tape on the bottom, making it easy to switch channels. Also, there's no popping or crackling when switching inputs, even if audio is already playing on the other input.

First update of the new year!

Well, happy new year to everyone! My year's been off to a hectic start with university, and my upcoming exams, so blogging has fallen a bit to the wayside. However, I'll be starting my semester break in a couple of weeks, and plan to work on a few little projects of mine during my time off. I plan to work on a few c++ programs from my (admittedly long) list of ideas, while getting comfortable with creating makefiles/installing C++ programs in Linux. From there I may choose an open-source project to develop for, but that depends entirely on how long it takes me to get comfortable with it all. I'm also toying with the idea of maybe playing around with some circuitry (something like Arduino boards, just without the enormous shipping costs from the US to Germany!). If anyone has a company/website they know of that has decent shipping costs, please post it below in the comments! Besides that, I plan to expand my knowledge of VHDL and Assembly in preparation for my second semester. I will, hopefully, mix the Assembly with my C++ programming, in order to leave room for actual relaxing. If anyone has a good book, or website, detailing on how best to go about using Assembly in C++, feel free to leave a comment as well. I also plan to write a few more tutorials for my blog during my time off, so requests are welcome.

As for new stuff I'm intrigued about: Honeycomb (Android 3.0), Gnome 3.0, Motorola XOOM tablet, Mass Effect 3, and an Android 2.2 update that should eventually arrive for my Motorola Milestone. I'm also hoping to upgrade my PC to a core i5-2400 3.1GHz processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and (due to the new processor) a new USB 3.0-ready motherboard. I'm ideally looking to spend <400€, and if anyone has suggestions on motherboards, I'd be interested to hear them (the rest of the hardware I've pretty much already picked out). While I'm at it I may be replacing my computer's case. What I am curious about: Does anyone know how Windows 7 and ArchLinux handles massive hardware changes? I should assume Windows 7 will require a new activation, but Arch should just auto-detect the right drivers for most of the parts I'm planning on swapping out, right? Anything I should be on the look out for?

Also, if anyone has any suggestions as to projects I should look into, interesting snippets of code/news, or a book they recently read and enjoyed (or movie or TV show), feel free to leave me a comment, I'm always looking for new stuff to distract me from my work!

A change is coming...to Command & Conquer

As many of you know (or maybe you don't), I write for the Full Circle Magazine. FCM is a free community e-magazine for Ubuntu and its' derivatives. I started writing for them in January, 2009 (21 issues ago!), filling in for Command & Conquer original author, Robert Clipsham. He felt he could no longer continue it for personal reasons and I sent him an email (as he suggested anyone interested should in C&C), and lo-and-behold, here I am. Last month (Issue #41) included a link to a survey. Based on said survey results, a large percentage of our readers are more inclined to use the GUI (no real surprise there), but a large number of readers expressed a liking to my article series (some even suggested we have more like it). In an attempt to appeal to a wider audience, I will henceforth (as of Issue #43) be including both GUI and CLI applications, tips, tricks, and general know-how in Command & Conquer (and may result in a name change if I think of something catchy). This fulfils a request by readers for a larger "tips and tricks" section, while possibly giving everyone something to read in C&C.

For those of you who love the CLI as much as I do - fret not! (musical pun unintended). I will be including CLI alternatives within any GUI article I write (as long as there is an alternative), and not every article will necessarily be GUI-based. I am mainly just removing the restriction on topic choice.

On a slightly different note, I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who reads C&C, and who posted positive comments in the survey! It really means a lot to me to know that there are plenty of people out there who find my articles useful. And to those readers who point out any mistakes I make within a few hours of the magazine being online, I thank you, it's always nice to face-palm just after you lose the ability to fix any mistakes! (I jest - I always figure I have a mistake or two). I'd also like to take a moment to suggest that a few of you may want to contact Ronnie about becoming proof-readers? That way your suggestions will result in correct articles, instead of "oops" sections in the following article. I'm not sure how many of my readers are actually aware of this blog, but to those who know, here you go.

For those of you who aren't readers but enjoy reading Linux-oriented magazines, check out FCM here: www.fullcirclemagazine.org

And to my regular blog readers: I apologize for the lack of updates. I'm not going to make any excuses, I'm just going to say this: I have ideas for more blogposts (a review of Ubuntu 10.10 - either the LiveCD or the actual installed version, an article on LaTeX, a "how to google efficiently" article that may or may not be useful to you, and a few others that haven't been fully developed). I'm starting university and as such I can't promise regular updates, but I felt you should be made aware of the fact that I have things in the works, and they will arrive sooner rather than later.

Also, for those musically inclined readers of mine, I have updated my Guitar post from May with my new electric guitar (no pictures of the other acoustic, sorry!).

Doing my part...advertising!

A friend of mine asked me to share this video, and so here I am!

It's a video for the Samsung Galaxy Tab, titled "For You". Let me know what you guys think.




Description (English):
2 crew members.2 actors. 2 days. 1 Samsung Galaxy Tab.
'For You' can probably be considered one of those spontaneous projects. The new Samsung Galaxy Tab is supposed to transform your life on the go - and that's what happens to our main character.
http://galaxytab.samsungmobile.com/
Producer - Sang-Yoon Song
Director - Ina Fischer
Camera - Ina Fischer
Editing - Sang-Yoon Song & Ina Fischer
Animation - Sang-Yoon Song
Music - Luís Chaves
Actors - Oliwia Smolen & Lukas N.P. Egger

Description (German):
Film-Crew: 2
Schauspieler: 2
Tage: 2
Samsung Galaxy Tab: 1
http://galaxytab.samsungmobile.com/
'For You' ist aus einer einfachen Idee enstanden und soll, durch eine kleine Liebesgeschichte, die Einfachheit und Anwendbarkeit des Samsung Galaxy Tabs darstellen.
Producer - Sang-Yoon Song
Regisseur - Ina Fischer
Kamera - Ina Fischer
Schnitt (Film) - Ina Fischer
Bearbeitung - Sang-Yoon Song & Ina Fischer
Animation - Sang-Yoon Song
Musik - Luís Chaves
Schauspieler - Oliwia Smolen & Lukas N.P. Egger

Theme Overhaul & Update!

Well, now that there's the ability to customize templates, I've made the entire blog a little wider (lets you guys read my code snippets fully). Also, I've gone with a layout and colour/background combo that appeals to me. If you guys have any complaints about any elements of the blog, leave me a comment and I'll take it into consideration (I can't promise every complaint will be acted upon, but the major issues should be resolved). Consequently...if you like the blog like this, let me know!

I'll be updating the guitars post in a few days once I get to my third guitar, for anyone interested. I am also currently learning Japanese and have learned a few things (SCIM, anyone?), which I'll be posting up here soon (I can also post up a link to my vocab list for anyone who's interested - just leave a comment).

Looking forward to getting some feedback,
Lswest