TransluXent: Translucent Windows for X

TransluXent: Translucent Windows for X

TransluXent is an implementation of an X Server which uses OpenGL for what would be the graphics card driver. As such it can easily offer translucent windows.

What I find interesting is the fact they used OpenGL as the backend “hardware” of the project. This abstracts the GUI completely from the underlying physical hardware and as long as there’s an OpenGL driver for a particular graphics card X could be made to run in exotic places and do strange things. Commercial OpenGL support for a lot of hardware is probably better than support for X so this is a boon!
My first thought was of a 3D GUI, where you traverse a 3D environment. Your applications live in different parts of the space. Loading an application like Open Office would be represented by a slowly advancing application. The app gets bigger and bigger as it loads (remember, this is in OpenGL, doing this in a decent card won’t hurt the CPU performance!) and finally appears to “snap” into place in front of you!
Keyboard shortcuts are simply a “run mode” or zoom. Would virtual desktops exist? Maybe virtual “application groups” instead.
Enough of that, I await the flaming comments from usability geeks that will surely descend upon me once I post this! *grin*

b2 comments and new release

I tracked down several bugs last night in b2. It took an age, and one of them was so obscure it was lucky that I found it sooner rather than later!
I’ve also decided to rename this project b2++ as the addition of Smarty templates is only one of the enhancements I’ve brought to b2.
I’m away for a few days but you can expect a final 0.4 release next week.
Read the announcement for yourself!

Grandma beats up Airport Security Guards

Hehe. According to this story, an 83 year old woman beat up airport security guards when they tried to search her!

Witnesses said she was cackling, “Put your hands on an old lady, will you?” as she bashed both guards. The tape also showed a fourth guard attempting to grab Gordon’s wheelchair. Gordon removed a knitting needle from her purse and stabbed him in his left buttock. “What a wimp,” she told reporters. “He started screaming and grabbing his butt and running like a puppy that someone kicked.”

b2-Smarty installation

If you’re having trouble installing b2-smarty then take a look at this post. There’s 2 problems that might cause you trouble:

  1. Enable register_globals in your php.ini
  2. Make sure you copy the files in properly.

I’m dumbfounded to read that people prefer to edit code and HTML mixed in together. There’s just so many advantages to seperating the code and content out! I’m not going to go on about it, as others have explained all this better than I can.