Month: November 2003

Task Based UI’s

Inductive user interfaces (aka: IUI’s) or more commonly called “task-based” interfaces are a user interface (aka: UI) advancement that promotes “usage” or “tasks” over individual applications.

The article above talks about how Microsoft has promoted and been the most noticeable innovator of IUI’s. The reason I point the article out is because of an apparent “slight” to the Mac OSX community regarding the amount of innovation going into their OS. The author basically states that Mac OSX has done little or nothing (I would strongly support the use of the word nothing!) for UI advancement. This really bothers Mac users because they historically see themselves as the origin of all things innovative. And they were… once.

It’s a popular trend in the “literary computer expert world” to slight Microsoft for now comming out with a UI to the level of OSX. Some authors go so far as to say the Mac OSX is the “ultimage Unix desktop.” While many people believe the OSX is the most beautiful personal computer UI in existance… the reality of the matter is that it is less functional than OS9, less user-friendly than XP, less flexable than KDE,and less innovative than any of the above mentioned.

IUI’s is a wonderful advancement for the majority of end users (as long as power users do not loose their flexability), and one that should be promoted in all desktop UI’s. Denouncing it and rejecting it does nothing to help improve user interfaces. And makes those who ignore it look as ignorant as those who thought the internet was simply a fad.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I have been blessed with the most wonderful family (and its getting larger all the time…) and the greatest friends one could ever possibly have. Thanks to all of you!

Seti and KDE

I have finished a couple new rpms that are now available in the apt repository.  In what is surely the most “fun” group of packages I have made; I now have a complete a group of Seti@Home rpms for KDE!

  • setiathome-3.08 -Is the setiathome executable.
  • ksetiwatch-2.6.1 -Is a taskbar applet/application that allows you monitor your seti client from inside KDE
  • ksetisaver-0.3.2 -Is a KDE screensaver with star charts and and LCARS look & feel.

The setiathome client is a command-line application, but here are some pics of ksetiwatch and ksetisaver.  Thanks to Charles R. Anderson for his work on the original ksetisaver RPM.  Because setiathome is kinda funny (it puts its configuration files in the same directory as where the binary is called from), here is my recommendation for installing them:

Install the setiathome rpm.  Then as your main user do:

mkdir ~/.setiathome
echo ‘#!/bin/sh’ > ~/.setiathome/setiathome
echo ‘/usr/bin/setiathome’ >> ~/.setiathome/setiathome
chmod 755 ~/.setiathome/setiathome

After that just make sure you point ksetisaver and ksetiwatch to user “~/.setiathome/setiathome” instead of the executable directly. You can also use kcron  to set up a cron job (crontab -e does the same thing) every four hours or so.  If setiathome is running the cron job will have no effect but if its not running it will restart it.

What a great way to start the holiday weekend.

Heather.. Did you do this?

My wife things I am a computer geek.  So I like to spend some free time programming, playing video games, watching Lord of the Rings and Babylon 5 (which SHE like to watch also BTW…) and generally know entirely too much about computers.  She married me, didn’t she?

Well evidently catching a geek guy is not all bad.  Check out this HowTo Girl’s Guide to Geek Guys.  To be absolutely honest its pretty much spot on.

Spam: The bad kind

I hate spam!  Luckily if you are a Linux/KDE user your options for solving the spam dilemma are better than most. SpamAssassin is a heuristic email filter for tagging unsolicited commercial email.  It does text and header analysis, checks blacklists, and will even use Vipul’s Razor.

This innovative Open Source product can be put together with a properly configured email client to filter out unsolicited spam.  This is the tutorial I used to configure SpamAssassin with Kmail.  Some additional spam filter/Kmail information (including more information for using SpamAssassin with Kmail) can be found  here.

Run with Google

I have had several positive comments about last weeks Run Command article. The REALLY interesting stuff comes when you combine the Run Command with some of Google’s less known capabilities mentioned in this article.

For example I do a lot of conversions. I am constantly having to chance inches to meters.  Miles to kilometers etc..  Well using Google Calculator and the Run Command I can simply put into the Run Command this:

gg: 1000 lbs to kilograms

and I have an instant answer from Google! Need a pizza?  Hit Alt->F2 and type this:

gg: pizza 73111

(replace 73111 with your zip code) and you have the phone number of a local pizza place.  Make sure to read the Google article… you can do reverse phone number lookups, find a taxi, get a map, and much more… all using the KDE Run Command.

kde: Run Command

The Alt->F2 shortcut in KDE is one of the least used (by new users) and most useful functions in the KDE environment.  It is the KDE Run Command and not only can you use it to start applications but it can be used to automate searches, get help, and much much more.  I am dedicating this post to some of the lesser known functions.  Try typing some of these commands:

  • <command>  Start an application without leaving the keyboard.
  • kdesu <command>  Run a command as root without leaving keyboard.
  • </path/to/directory>  Opens a konqueror window in the specified directory.
  • gg: <search>   Does a google search and displays the results.
  • dict: <word>   Look up an English word in the dictionary.
  • wp: <topic>  Lookup topic material in an online encyclopedia.
  • help: <appname>  Get application specific help.
  • man|info: <sys tool>  Tool help (in a nice KDE GUI) throught the unix man or info pages.

The enhanced browsing functions are wonderful.  Some of the others I use are rf: (rpm find), bug: (find a specific bug report for KDE), ggi: (google image search), ggg: (google groups search), fm: (freshmeat search), cpan: (CPAN perl search) and many many more.  You can find the full list of browsing enhancements in the KDE control center “Enhanced  Browsing” Section.

rsyc me baby

This article talks about using rsync and expect to automate the process on rsyc’ing your home directory to a central server via ssh without needing user input each time.  It also keeps the system from being insecure (i.e. setting up a server/client trust without a passphrase) via storing the password in a variable for latter use.  The administrator can then enter the password at his/her convience without waiting for the cron job execution time.

I have a KDE project idea that I am starting to form in my head and this is a useful article towards that project.  As such.. you see it here.

24mph

The great question of our generation has finally been answered.  Yes, we now know the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow!  I don’t know about you but the better part of my philosophical study has been in the pursuit of the answer to this question. 

Now notice the bigger paradox.  The answer to the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow is simply the Answer for Life, The Universe and Everything, reversed!  24 <-> 42  I’m not sure that even Nietzsche could have seen this great nexus coming. Can the “Question to the Answer for Life, The Universe and Everything” be far behind?

The Plan

I got forwarded an email (incorrectly attributed to Robin Williams) listing a plan to solve the U.S.’s foreign affairs problems.  Although it is NOT an actual quote from Robin WIlliams, that does not invalidate the overall quality of the the plan:

1) The US will apologize to the world for our “interference” in their affairs, past &present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini and the rest of them ‘good old boys’. We will never “interfere” again.

2) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea and the Philippines. They don’t want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No more sneaking through holes in the fence.

3) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. We’ll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of who or where they are. France would welcome them.

4) All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit. No one from a terrorist nation would be allowed in. If you don’t like it there, change it yourself, don’t hide here. Asylum would not ever be available to anyone. We don’t need any more cab drivers.

5) No “students” over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don’t attend classes, they get a “D” and it’s back home baby.

6) The US will make a strong effort to become self sufficient energy wise. This will include developing non-polluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.

7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don’t like it, we go someplace else.

8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not “interfere”. They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if any anyway.

9) Ship the UN Headquarters to an island some place. We don’t need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, it would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us “Ugly Americans” any longer.

Nice… very nice.