Performance tuning the Linux lappy

Some do's and don'ts for performance tuning (disk, battery, swap) your Thinkpad with ubuntu/debian:

DO use a swap partition.

/dev/sda3 swap swap sw,pri=1 0 0

DO replace apmd with powersaved, and install kpowersave. This gives you a system tray icon for configuring cpu behaviour (throttling when running on battery), and a way to suspend to RAM ("sleep mode"). Now I just need to figure out how to map that to my Fn-F4 key.

DON'T mount your /tmp folder using tmpfs, unless you want to see the machine crash. It's not as fun as a BSOD, but it's a much bigger pain to recover from. You could also have a dedicated partition for /tmp if you want to restrict it to a given maximum size.

How to make your shell prompt prettier

It's been a long-standing kvetch on my part that when navigating deep directories in a Konsole window (or really, any xterm), when the paths get too long the line wraps on top of itself. So, today, as part of Think Fridays, I decided to solve this problem.

Step one: put the script lspathseg in your /usr/bin/ or somewhere else where your $PATH can find it.

Step two: use it in your /etc/bashrc like this:

export PS1="\$(lspathseg 2) \$ ";

Additionally, if you want to play with colour in your prompt, see my /etc/bashrc for how to do that.

Notes 7 + SimplyMEPIS 6 = one sweet lappy

Well, I've finally got my Thinkpad set up just the way I like it: running the latest SimplyMEPIS 6, KDE 3.5.3, and kernel 2.6.15-27-686. Goodbye, Windows! After a couple days of pain, I managed to not only get Notes 7 working through the IBM Lotus Workplace client (aka a bloated Eclipse RCP app), and annoyed at having to search in several places for instructions and packages, I've written an interactive installer script. Instead of being a recipe for what to do, it does it all for you! The script should work for any ubuntu-based distro, but you might have things missing from your etc/apt/sources.list, like the multiverse stuff. Anyway, it's bound to be hella easier to use than the old manual trial and error method. Drop me a line if you use it and it works for you!

And the winner is...

Ah, Scott Adams, you've entertained me again. I raise a burrito to you. I'd always thought so, and now there's "enthusiastically unscientific" proof that the USA is as weaselly a country as North Korea. Heh.

Patch & Buddy, Verminators

Another day, another dead raccoon. And two rather muddy dogs. I've lost count over the years, but I'm sure this has to be at least the 10th raccoon they've discouraged from knocking over trash and recycling bins in my neighbourhood. I've heard Toronto has the highest raccoon population of any large city in Canada, so it's a daunting task, but they do it with pride.

After a leap from the top of the bluff west of Livingston Rd., they proceeded to slide down the side of the bluff after a rather massive raccoon (wider than either of them), who as usual was no match for a pair of experienced Pointers. After a few minutes and a few yards of sliding though the mud, they were done. We walked home and they were bathed shortly thereafter. More photos here.

You'd think common sense would negate the need for a law here

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News from Google

Two items to report:

• Google Personalized Homepage now includes tabs and collapsable modules (though there seems to be a bit of a caching bug)...
• Just found the blog Google Operating System which is awash with tips, tricks, and insights from the world of Google's APIs and toys. A must read for the Google-obsessed.

The Wicker Man

Yowza. Got dragged out to see the remake of 1973's The Wicker Man, starring my most beloved of craptactular actors, Nicholas Cage. It was great to escape the clutches of the office for a few hours, and for that I'm grateful... but geez. I suppose I should have expected this from the cast, which includes:

* Diane Delano, whose only role in the film was to remind me of Kathy Bates in About Schmidt and worry me for nearly 90 minutes that there'd be a similar scene here - though thankfully there's nothing so scary in this flick; and

* Molly Parker, who reminds me that some Canadians should stick to Canadian films, like the highly entertaining Men With Brooms.

If you're thinking of seeing this, I recommend renting it or seeing it in a nigh-empty theatre so you can MST3K the hell out of it as you watch it - yes, it's that bad. (Or good, depending on your point of view.)

Some quotes from rottentomatoes.com, which gave this remake a rather fitting 14% freshness rating.

"Watching Cage karate chop Leelee "Made-for-TV" Sobiesky into submission is almost worth the price of admission. Well, assuming admission was free."
"Nic meets his ex-fiancé, Willow, whose submarine-sized lips seem to be gradually folding around her head like a collagen Venus Flytrap."
"For viewers, the biggest challenge may be holding back screams of laughter as Summersisle is revealed to be the Island of Awful Acting. ... the original film ended with a sudden shock, this one climaxes with high hilarity."
"The plot is nonsensical but the cast and Edenic setting is worth a look."
"The most risible backwoods thriller since M. Night Shyamalan traveled to The Village."

I'm afraid I have to agre with that last one, and so, to quote Seth Green and the gang from Robot Chicken, "What a tweest!"

Picasa rocks!

I've recovered most of the photos that were online before I was hacked last fall, and posted them here. (Note the new sidebar item too.)

Testing out Picasa2 for Linux

  Still looking for a simple solution to publish pics online (instead of my old technique of running Photoshop macros and a bit of manually updated PHP). Testing, testing, one-two... 

(BTW, this is a shot of Lynn Canyon taken in March 2006.)