HOWTO: Ubuntu desktop visual effects on Dell D630

The Dell Latitude D630 comes with a number of different video cards but if you use the Intel chipset you may be frustrated when trying to activate the visual effects eye candy of Compiz:

Ubuntu Visual Effects

Checking either of the lower two options brings up this alert saying, “Desktop effects could not be enabled”.

Ubuntu Visual Effects

I didn’t bother trying to fix it for ages and put it down to using Ubuntu on exotic hardware. Fortunately it’s simple to get working. I just needed to install the xGL server:

# aptitude install xserver-xgl
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Building tag database... Done
The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
  libglitz-glx1 libglitz1
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libglitz-glx1 libglitz1 xserver-xgl
0 packages upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/1843kB of archives. After unpacking 4854kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]

Once I logged out (and rebooted, for some reason my external monitor doesn’t always “catch” when I restart X) and back in again xGL was loaded and I was able to enable desktop visual effects. Despite my misgivings about using an embedded graphics chip it actually works really well. Windows bounced around, bent out of shape and did lots of nice animation stuff.

Then I removed the whole lot by uninstalling the xserver-xgl package again. Why? Unfortunately it conflicts with other openGL apps. In a toss up between fancy desktop effects and decent SDLMame performance, SDLMame wins hands down. It’s nice to know the visual effects work though!

Thanks Arthur for all the great stories

I couldn’t possibly let today pass without noting that Arthur C. Clarke died yesterday at the age of 90. I read it first last night when Scott Beale twittered it and my first emotion was shock, and then of course sadness. I don’t know how many Saturday mornings I spent in Cork City Library looking through the science fiction section for his books. Then it was back on the bike and off home to devour my latest find if I was lucky and found one I hadn’t already read.

His Mysterious World tv series was compulsive viewing for a young fella like me (and I’m not the only one!). All I remember of it now is a rotating crystal skull but every week I was glued to the tv screen. Ah, Youtube to the rescue. Here’s that programme about the crystal skull:

Here he is years later on his 90th birthday last December, sharing his reflections and thoughts.

Wired interviewed him way back in 1993 and Jeff Greenwald asked him the following,

WIRED: As a futurist, do you spend much time thinking about your own death?

ACC: I think about it more than I ever did in the past, of course, since I’ve had these brushes. It doesn’t worry me; I hope I won’t have any discomfort, is the main thing. And I’m more concerned with the people I love, and the animals I love, than myself, in a way.

WIRED: What is it that you’d most like to be remembered for?

ACC: I’m happy that people are calling the stationary orbit the Clarke Orbit. I think that’s enough. And of all my books, The Songs of Distant Earth. It’s got everything in it that I ever wanted to say.

WIRED: Have you given any thought to what you’d want your epitaph to be?

ACC: Oh, yes. I’ve often quoted it: “He never grew up; but he never stopped growing.”

I have to go dig out Songs of Distant Earth again. That was an amazing story, and so sad too.

WP Super Cache 0.6

It’s been a while since the last release of WP Super Cache, so it’s about time to release the updated code on the world!

This plugin allows a WordPress blog to be served directly from static HTML files just like another popular blogging engine.

When this plugin was originally released some users noticed strange folders being created in the root folder of their blogs. I was never able to replicate it and despite my efforts to track down the bug it remained unfixed. Well, I fixed that bug thanks to whooami and to Jennifer who allowed me to login to her server and debug my script. Barry was astute enough to figure out why it happened.

Other changes include:

  • Compressed cache files are deleted properly now, props John Pozadzides.
  • Documentation got a serious update. I added a FAQ, and the Troubleshooting section has been expanded.
  • The .htaccess is not updated until the user clicks a button in the backend now.
  • The listing of cached files is gone for this release as it was inaccurate. It didn’t include super cached files.
  • The backend admin page has been rearranged slightly. Advanced features go at the very end, and if you’re only using the WP Cache functionality, the Super Cache items disappear. The mod_rewrite check and .htaccess items are only enabled if Super Cache is enabled now.
  • Not all blogs have permalinks ending in a slash so I added a slash back into the mod_rewrite rules. If you use .html at the end of your permalinks you’ll appreciate this. props Michael R Aulia for that.

One more thing to note. If your blog is visible at a URL with or without the www you should decide which one is more important to you and download the Enforce www preference plugin. Super cached files are stored in a directory named after the hostname so if you go to the www URL and someone else goes to the url without the www they won’t see the static html file. Deciding on one URL avoids any issues with duplicate content too which is probably much more important too.

Grab WP Super Cache 0.6 from the download page!

No activity within 1800 seconds; please log in again

1800 seconds is such a long time, right?

  1. It’s 30 minutes.
  2. It’s 0.5 hours.
  3. It’s 0.0208333333 days.
  4. It’s also 5.70397764 × 10-5 years.

And it’s not long enough for me. phpMyAdmin logs you out after 1800 seconds, obviously for security reasons. That’s fine if there are other people about, if I was in an office with people coming and going, but I work from home. All I see for most of the day is my family, the radio, my messy desk, computers, and the view out the window. Time to figure out how to make that 1800 second limit a little longer or remove it altogether.

After a little digging, I discovered that extending the time limit to a day is actually quite easy. Open your phpMyAdmin’s config.inc.php and search for or add the following line:

$cfg['LoginCookieValidity'] = 86400;

Refresh your logged out phpMyAdmin and presuming you haven’t left it idle for 24 hours, you’ll be logged in again!

If the time limit really bugs you, you need http authentication. Look for the “auth_type” line in the config.inc.php and change that to “http”. phpMyAdmin won’t log you out as long as your browser is open. Perfect!

If you’re concerned about sending your MySQL username and password in the clear each time you make a request to phpMyAdmin you can either use SSL or try the “config” auth_type. Make sure you fill in the username and password fields in the config file, and secure the phpMyAdmin directory with a htpasswd file.

How to Insult the Mac Brigade

I’ve insulted the Mac Brigade. I am so sorry. I didn’t realise that putting stickers on an Apple Macbook was such a heinous crime. HOW COULD I HAVE BEEN SO STUPID?

Well, that’s how Bernie puts it anyway. Sort of. He posted a photo of my Macbook at BlogTalk and the response surprised me. Hahahaha. Thud! (Laughing my head off)

For those who missed the original shot, here’s one I took moments ago. There are stickers from Laughing Squid (and a button too), getfirefox.com (Thanks Nikolay), Zooomr.com, Hyku, that WordPress crowd who get everywhere, and 2 from Om Malik: FoundRead and NewTeeVee.
The other button says, “hard bloggin’ scientist” and I got that from Jan Schmidt last Tuesday at BlogTalk. Thanks!

Macbook

Lovely isn’t it? Who’s on your laptop? Anyone got a Dell sticker to put on the Apple Logo? It’d shine through nicely!

A Photowalk in Cork on Sunday

If you’re not subscribed to my photoblog, In Photos, you may have missed my photowalking announcement.

Next Sunday, the 9th of March a number of us will converge on the scenic Lough area of Cork for a few hours walking and snapping. The Lough is a protected wild life area (and one of the oldest in the country), it teems with swans, ducks, geese and I don’t know how many other types of birds. There are always people about, kids feeding the birds, sometimes fishermen, couples walking by the water’s edge. It’s a beautiful place to go for a walk.

And at 3pm we’re going to descend on the area with our cameras. If you’re around Cork and free, why not join us? It doesn’t matter if you only have a point and shoot camera, or you’re only starting out in photography. A photowalk is a great chance to practise and learn. There’s also a local bar giving us a chance to put our feet up and relax, even if driving home means minerals are the order of the day.

So, see you on Sunday?

PS. there’s still time to buy a Daffodil picture before lunchtime tomorrow!

Please sir, can I have more?

A poor urchin goes up to the headmaster, “Please sir, can I have more comments?”
The headmaster looks down from his perch and with a grimace says, “Not before you show me your cookie!”

Well, the poor lad never did get any more comments. He didn’t have the right cookie, but you can. Just grab my Cookies For Comments plugin and anyone who leaves a comment on your blog will need the correct cookie. That will stop quite a bit of comment spam dead in it’s tracks.

It’s the first release and fairly simplistic, but it should give some comment spammers a headache for at least 10 minutes. It’s about time they upgraded their spamming tools anyway. According to my log file, it had stopped over 18,600 spam comments in the last week or so. The rest got handed to Akismet and it stopped several thousand more. They’ve been busy haven’t they?

So, should you use this instead of Akismet? Not a chance. This will only stop the brain dead comment spammers who use automated bots to post to the comment form. Trackback and pingback spam and spammers who either use poorly paid human slaves or browser based user agents will defeat this.

If you use a caching plugin such as WP Super Cache make sure you clear the cache after enabling this plugin. Also, I’m not sure what will happen with those plugins that merge CSS files together.

Thanks Dan for the idea!

Paul Walsh is a true woman

Go chat with him in Oslo. Better than all that reality tv stuff!

Oh, this is good, if the web business doesn’t work out Paul should consider reality tv. He’s here now. He has possibly missed his flight because his laptop time is on UK time. He’s number 4 in the queue with the airline. Good luck Paul!

Edit: check Paul’s Twitter for further updates. The video is here now!

On Tuesday I join the Bebo Generation at BlogTalk

Sigh. The local free newspaper, The Cork Independent, covered BlogTalk 2008 here in Cork and lead with the headline, “Bebo Generation descend on Cork”. Bebo? *mutter* *mutter*

Anyway, I’ll be sitting on a panel titled, From blog-style commentary to conversational social media which pretty much spans the entire blogging and social media experiences. On the panel with me will be Stephanie Booth who I have conversed with a few times on IRC but never met, Bernie Goldbach who I have met a number of times and always has something interesting to say, and finally, Jan Schmidt who I had never heard of but his bio suggests someone who will know a lot about the topic of social media!

How do I feel about the current crop of social media sites? I quit Facebook! Well, no I didn’t, but I will, soon!

Three killed at Dunboy Castle

Three young men were killed today when their car fell into the water at Dunboy Castle just outside Castletownbere in Co Cork.

Investigating gardaí say that the three local young men had been driving in the grounds of Dunboy Castle when their Ford Fiesta got stuck in grass close to a laneway below the castle which is currently being renovated.

Two other friends came to their rescue with a jeep, but for reasons which are not yet clear, all five were in the Fiesta when it slipped from the embankment and into the water.

Sad and shocking as it is, I wouldn’t mention it here except that I drove down there with my family only a week ago. We enjoyed a lovely meal in Castletownbere during which we were told that Dunboy Castle was worth a look. On the way out of the town the castle is signposted so we decided to go look. Here are a few pictures. Judging by the picture on the RTE website I’d say they went into water very close to where I parked a week earlier. That freaks me out a little bit.

Dunboy Castle

Dunboy Castle

Dunboy Castle

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