Sunday, January 03, 2016
Linux default/non-default web browser link opening
'course, instead I could keep browsers slim, close down tabs lots more often or start a new session afresh each time. Not happening.
So back in May 2015, I wrote a script to be my new default www browser. When I click on links now in any app (that opens them in the system default browser), it runs this script instead which looks for the most-preferred web browser currently running and opens the link in that. Solved!
I also shared this code on my github, and while it has a bug or two still, it does its job the majority of the time (for me at least). I'd be happy if you or anyone else took a look and tried it out, reported bugs, suggested/offered improvements etc. There is a little bit of file editing to install it at present (indicating its fairly immature status), but once installed you just have to select it as the default browser in your settings, and can easily switch back to your previous one if you haven't done anything non-standard beforehand. There's a configuration file for it to tell it how to order your browsers and even (probably a bit buggy) ways to always use a certain browser for certain sites.
I could do with a gui to configure it so non-sysadmins can use it easily.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Oggcamp '13
The name "Oggcamp" comes from a combination of being a barcamp, and the "Ogg" because ogg/theora is an open-source computer audio file format with no DRM rights restrictions (not inherent in the file format/encoding, anyway) - and the organisers of the event are two (uniquely different) podcasts about Linux, or specific distributions of, that produce their shows in ogg format as well as the standard mp3 format, working together for the community (and mostly in order to share the huge effort required to put it on)!
The fact this event exists and has become a regular staple of the UK open-source scene is wonderful because its the biggest (and really, the only one worth considering that focusses on consumer/hackable product level items) in the UK and we badly needed one! Its actually been going since 2009 now, replacing LugRadio Live and always brings together some great people and technologies from all sorts of areas of the Linux/other software/hardware world. Being a barcamp means you should expect surprises about what you'll find there, and you can never be sure from one year to the next who you'll meet or what you'll see. Hobbyists and professionals (often developers, designers, artists and activists) from anywhere and everywhere - from the UK and abroad walk, train, drive, beg/share lifts, and fly, to come to Oggcamp every year.
Hardware at OggCamp was particularly dominated by the Raspberry Pi this year (now the production line has ramped up with 1000000 made), with a "Raspberry Jam"-like space, but Arduino-based devices also had their fair share of the rest, as usual, including much of the robotics on show/in play. I (re?)learnt that Nintendo Wii wired controllers wires can be straight into the Pi GPIO I2C pins (if careful) so you can use a Wii Nunchuck as a joystick for things, if suitably programmed (online examples exist, I believe). I do have to mention the Minecraft 3D printer robot crane that was set up downstairs, taking up most of the space under reception with its cord trailing down from three corners and while it wasn't quite what I expected (having not seen pictures previously), it was lots of fun to control and I had a good chat about the idea of automating building using it and the maths involved; of course the attach/detach would need to be a remotely controllable mechanism first. I gave myself a minecraft-cube hat after careful maneouvring, but failed to have a picture taken of it.
Having recently vastly improved my Lego Raspberry Pi case (with a rather fetching R-Pi logo, think but hope the Pi/Lego folk are ok about that lookalike copy of the Pi logo for personal use), I was happy to see further Lego Pi symbiosis in a (Technical Lego) remote-control car with the wifi'd-up Pi and a battery pack on the car; though a broken/dead part (was it battery related? I forget) didn't allow it to be played with when I was looking.
The home-built Tri-copter I saw whizzing around at lunch on Saturday (and then it whizzed into a lamppost, when it became a two-part-'copter :( ) was pretty awesome too - not sure I've seen a tricopter before, with all the quadcopters and single-blade RC copters/RC planes around making up most of the market it seems.
The organisers had actually hoped to run screens next each talks room from a Pi (they were random laptops last year I think) as I understand it, but the screens failed to be provided and the Pi's failed to logon the network as its an academic-provided-thing and used unusual auth/certificate settings (still not sure which/what) that some devices just couldn't cope with, or that required lots of trial and error (my Eee netbook got on ok last year at the same venue but only after several tries, but then got kicked off almost immediately). So that was a bit of an issue early on, but the huge projected talk schedule in reception on the wall above you made it much more livable-with. Especially as all the rooms for talks were only spread between two floors (ground and lower ground, or whatever they call them). Last year they were all over the place and required use of the lift/several flights of stairs to get from one end to the other; great exercise for sedentary geeks but would have been terrible without screens next to each room telling you what was on then/next in that room and others.
The talks were great as usual, and this year it felt particularly awesome at how last-minute-organised talks or sessions just happened seemingly almost out of nowhere and taught us useful and practical stuff about 1) Firefox vs. Ubuntu Touch mobile OS's (via Top-Trumps like battleing! lots of fun for us as audience! plus examples of the phones running each OS worked their way round the room so we could try them for real); and 2) Git version control (after Tobias complained in a previous talk that he didn't understand it, I said Jon 'theNiceGuy' Spriggs (CampfireManager creator, and hero) and I had had a similar chat at the party the night before (because thats what parties for geeks are like
It did feel a little quiet due to the lack of a Fab, and a few other regulars were missing too (Andy Stanford-Clark of IBM for instance who usually gives great talks, and Simon Phipps from the last couple of years who's - well, energetic and charismatic to say the least) but it never felt like the crowd was mourning their absence. There's always enough new people and different stalls that keeps the fresh and exciting vibe topped up. For instance, this year there were a couple of girls promoting their PCB manufacturing business (and breadboard?) for small-scale hobbyists or prototypers (or business plan thereof, I'm not a hardware guy so much so I didn't read the detail - feel free to comment and fill in info).
Campfire Manager, the tool developed for OggCamp some years ago but now also used at other barcamps (eg. Blackpool I believe), did its usual solid service (sorry, did I mean stolid? hmmm... I never noticed any issues though some things always break temporarily for some people). Maybe I didn't notice any problems because my smartphone (an N900 that I love and will eventually miss the hardware keyboard of, for any curious geeks reading) is currently bricked out of action and awaiting a new USB port (hopefully working for data - its a known issue with some of the early batches) for a chance to reflash it into action - if I can I'll love it even more.. So I had my wife's old blackberry backup phone, and the "Curve" really does not do the internet in a way you might expect of a wifi+2G enabled app&sync-capable "smart"phone. I just gave up and SMS-tweeted/followed instead. Bringing the netbook(an original Eee, yes the comes-with-Linux one that started the netbook market) on Sunday to try and fix this situation just meant I had more to carry around - basically I was too lazy to figure the wifi connection out again and its battery is somewhat old, reducing the time I could really keep it out of suspend mode. Of course it wouldn't tether to 2G via the Blackberry - don't be silly! (or at least not without spending out on a too-expensive app, I think - this should only be a temporary solution). Where's the win on the raffle-prize tablet when you need it?!! ;) What's that? I suddenly got your attention? Yes, the sponsors between them had donated some fantastic prizes, as always:
* 2 brand new Nexus 7 (newest model) tablets
* Kobo eReaders (that weren't Kindles because Mark pointed out how freedom-hating they are with their DRM and lock-in, so thank him for not having a Kindle if you're a winner and slightly miffed by that! Or just install an OS you prefer and tada! win! (ish) - errr. wait; is there a proper choice for eInk devices?!!).
* lots of O'Reilly techy books
* some random other (ahem...) "prizes" that Tony had bought on the way up. Pineapple chunks, anyone? (seriously! fun for everyone else not winning those though!)
* some other stuff I don't remember. Not the usual clump of Canonical clothing/accessories (like laptop bags),
There were other little compo's/give-aways too, a "decorate your swag bag" for example or basho T-shirts for anyone with anything even remotely valid to say in the Sunday raffle-cast feedback segment. I could probably have stood up and said "The" and got a T-shirt for it, they had that many to
With all this going on, the event (daytime talks+podcast and night-time partying) was fabulous, as always! Regarding talks, I particularly remember the automotive automation one because it taught me so much about non-google aspirations in that business (and reminded me who the hell made QNX and why it might lose favour) as well as because it was a very professionally given and clearly spoken talk; and of course the (as expected by reputation) Freaky Clown talk this year about (ahem) certain means of security testing and by inference, how to keep yourself and your tech more secure. A full auditorium - close to as many in there as for the live podcast, which is for most people a highlight of the weekend. And, given the main stage after last year's bursting side-rooms for his Image Forensics talk (so well-received it was repeated on the Sunday so more people could see it after the room overflowed on the Saturday), he didn't disappoint. I can only wish that were I to do a talk, it would be as entertaining and educating as this, and I'm sure he'll continue to improve delivery of it even further in future. Note to self: try to post on joind.in (oggcamp), and lanyrd (oggcamp)? are they the setup? for talk reviews/other stuff (you should too, if you were there).
Even the wife, who's not a geek but came to the party and of course,... lovingly supports me in my geekery - until stuck talking to too many slightly-socially-awkward less-experienced folk, or through tiredness from a hard day shopping and sightseeing - hard life eh! - oh where was I; even she had a great time in Liverpool, which was mainly accomplished by NOT staying at the Adelphi (really, avoid it) like last year, and having a pretty decent view out our windowed "Z Hotel" room and a huge Sky-enabled TV and (really) big fluffy towels. Its couples only, really, considering the wetroom position, frosted-glass wall inside the room, and limited space; but the odd combination of 2-star (no bedside telephone, no mini-bar, slightly reduced maid service I think, standard rooms don't have windows, shower was just about ok-ish and slightly odd behaviour during adjustment) and 4-star (awesome towels and nice bed, free wine and cheese (awesome "Kick Ass" cheddar cheese brand must find out more and good raisin-walnut bread too) in reception every night, and comfortable quality, if modern-minimalist, design). But this hotel review should go somewhere else (eg. tripadvisor).
The live podcast on Saturday afternoon is always a good event to finish off the day before the party and I don't think I actually feel much need to comment - listen for yourselves from their podcast-feed (I'm too lazy even to link to it!). Except to say, in summary of the weekend,...
Though comments were made on, and I still slightly miss, JonO/Aq's banter and chemistry from the LugRadio (Live) days, between the UUPC/Outlaw podcasters they make it work pretty well and the organisation of it all is due some massive respect (particularly for Dan doing the metaphorical and literal heavy-lifting to get the venue sorted). Popey does have more hair than you can make work for imagining as a modern-day JonO, and the colour is all wrong for Aq; but don't try to compare - its evolved since then. The quality and content from all the speakers and just community-based positive reinforcement, entertainment and fun levels just push your mood higher through the whole weekend, just as always. It was made even better by winning a pocket-guide to Git (chosen from available O'Reilly books at that point) in the raffle(cast), which was immediately after our hastily-produced Git talk just half an hour before! I think the ratio of prizes to tickets is always pretty favourable to winning something at these events if you spend a bit and if you're realllly lucky it might be something to change your life (just a little bit). Proof: I won my Asus Eee netbook back in 2009, the last full LugRadio Live, but I've consistently won books or other tat in the years since by spending ~£10 on tickets, give or take a few quid.
Just one Q left: WTF! happened to my custom (Bytemark provided to all attendees who rsvp'd in time) mug, with my name on it! FreakyClown had his stolen - well he did use an xkcd security-hack quote as his name so could easily be relevant to any attendee, but mine had my actual name on it. So either it broke before arriving at the venue or someone took it. Basts! (that'd be courier basts or thief basts).
Hunt for ("#"-prefix as needed) "oggcamp" on twitter/social media or see @oggcamp for more.
My filtered photos from the event will be appearing vaguely soonish on my flickr account (jgbreezer) as the OggCamp13 set.
Tags: [oggcamp]
Sunday, September 14, 2008
OSM m,Linux and my Holux M-241
Ok, so you've probably figured if you've read some of my recent twitters that I've become ever so slightly addicted to openstreetmap mapping.
I'm so involved I co-organised a mini mapping meet in Farnham (Surrey, UK) recently and dramatically improved the coverage and detail there; I took one of the most involved sections around the town.
It appeals to the slight OCD tendency many geeks have and helping out with OSM really feels like I'm contributing to a useful resource that many other people will use, so there's a big feelgood factor; plus it can be quite social and gets you exploring areas you wouldn't normally go to otherwise, even finding paths or features nearby that you wouldn't have discovered without the OSM motivation.
At the moment, the data isn't complete enough for the UK to be consistently usable for routing, but Central London is generally mapped better than google-maps with many details that you don't get with other maps (eg. amenities like recycling, telephone boxes and postboxes). The OSM Foundation reckon they'll have all the UK roads mapped by the end of 2009. Most of the work is being done by the few committed mappers with lots of time on their hands, but in the 'long tail' methodology, many many thousands of people have updated the places and names near them that they know through local knowledge. Maybe only one or two updates each, but its the sum total of those updates that makes the real difference.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Dapper
I decided to upgrade my work desktop PC to Ubuntu's Dapper Drake release over the weekend - left it going from an ssh login from home. I'd been meaning to do it for ages but work kept getting in the way, so I decided as I was around the flat for a few hours cleaning, why not just leave it running and do the large downloads over the weekend when it won't matter to the company.
Dapper Drake has been out since June, and having seen how many updates were still being made to fix problems, I had avoided it for a few weeks; but now it seemed stable enough and the teething problems looked like they'd mostly been ironed out.
I only had two problems post ugprade:
- I couldn't log in graphically via the gnome (gdm) login screen.Ok, a pretty serious problem, but only the one.. ssh remote login or via the text virtual terminals (eg. via Ctrl+Alt+F1) worked just fine but it just behaved like I'd got the password wrong but without any errors or pause. I knew I could type it ok, so I did a google and checked the logs for the Xserver, syslog, and auth (in /var/log).
I had this odd error:Execution of PostLogin script returned > 0. Aborting.It had been working fine before, and I'd completely forgotten Synergy had an entry in the script to restart it as the user after the as-root version on startup. I couldn't see why it would fail, unless some libraries had broken in the upgrade or been removed or changed configuration; but I disabled synergy and lo and behold, it worked! I could log in again. I tried rebuilding synergy before running it again, but it seemed to not need new binaries installing (from what I could catch of the speedily-flying-by build output).
- My sudo sessions weren't being reset as they used to. This problem was due to a customisation I'd made to the last one involving /etc/sudoers and using fcron and
sudo -kto manage my sudo session timeouts every day rather than the default-installed anacron (which clash according to the package dependencies). That was easily fixed once I realised it had removed fcron in favour of anacron again.
So now I have a fully working Dapper that looks just - well, dapper! (excuse the pun). No config appears broken yet, but it did mess with my window titlebar - the colours. It's got rounded edges, looks a little cuter.
Tags: ubuntu dapper linux upgrade