Friday, April 29, 2011

How to Fix Ubuntu 11

I upgraded my laptop to Ubuntu 11 today, but I should have first tried a liveCD or something. The new "Unity" UI is a complete and unmitigated disaster. Maybe it would work ok on a little netbook or a tablet or something, but it's atrocious on a "real" computer. Anyway, here's what I've done to get myself back to a working, sane interface, should anybody else find themselves as shocked and horrified as I did:

1) Login with "Ubuntu Classic" instead of the new default. Duh.

2) Change Audacious's horrifying new interface back to winamp-style. Also duh.

3) Turn off Compiz's evil/disruptive/wrong/horrible "Grid" plugin.
(`apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager` to do so)

4) Get rid of the clumsy new "overlay" scrollbar.
(echo “export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0″ >/etc/X11/Xsession.d/80properscrollbars)

5) Not technically an Ubuntu thing, but fix FireFox's status bar.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/status-4-evar/

There was also some cleanup to do with my toolbar, but it was pretty minor and the new layout actually has less clutter. Anyway, in the words of Dr. Zoidberg, "Life was bad, but now it's good! Forever!"

Friday, April 08, 2011

Grillin' in the Rain

We're grilling in the rain
Just grilling in the rain
What a glorious bratwurst
We're stuffed if not sane
Cramped below an overhang
The entire workplace gang
We're grilling, and drinking, in the rain

Monday, April 04, 2011

The 3DS

As is apparently tradition now, I picked up the latest Nintendo system right away. The 3DS doesn't have very many games yet (though it does still play the older DS library) but it does feature some pretty slick built-in stuff including a Mii creator (a superset of the Wii's) and a 3D camera.


There are also some "AR" (augmented reality) games and toys included, which are pretty crazy in technical terms. This is the kind of device that you really need to see with your own eyes, but I've pulled out the 3D pictures I took and put together a little web viewer for them. These are pictures which literally make you go cross-eyed while looking at them, but I can't think of any other way to show you 3D pictures through your 2D computer monitor. :^)

http://penduin.net/3ds

Also: anyone with a 3DS, I hereby encourage you to import my Mii from that QR code on the right.