wahlau's online hut

i personally like CLI because just a few key strokes and i will get what i need. But i am bad at remembering the optiosn and commands... so this will be a note-to-self post, while hopefully it might also be helpful to you

to see folder size, the simplest way i know is to use du:

wahlau@localhost:~/ $  du

and you will get a long list of folders and the number of kilobytes of the data in the folders. so make it more "readable", just do this:

I started using pys60 since a few months ago for some simple quick prototyping on S60 smartphones. I realise the development can be tedious, when you have to type your codes on the desktop, then copy it via USB to the phone then run it. Therefore i searched a little and found the tool PUTools.

To get it running on an ubuntu system isn't really that difficult - the standard installation needs the package python-serial and you are ready to go. so do this before you download and unpack the software

a quicky to get the latest firefox on your ubuntu jaunty system:

as mentioned here, update your apt-repository:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

and don't forget to add the key:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

next make update your apt database.

a couple of weeks ago Xandros released the news that they are also into an "instant on" OS for netbooks. So i signed up for the beta, and a few days after the announced release date (well, i actually forgot about the sign up too :P) i got a mail to invite me to download it. It is actually available for everyone at download.com or tucows...

since i finally figured out how to connect to my department's VPN server, i just wonder whether is it also easy to create my own vpn server at home. The idea is - with vpn connect i can easy browse files i need from the file server, or to synchronize repositories/backup files. I won't need to stream stuffs from home, or sneak naughty packets through my home network :)

so far i only have one problem after upgrading to Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex - my VPN via pptp stopped working. It is actually a known issue since months, but so far only tweaks and hacks available from many people. Ubuntu has not released any patch for pptp/Network Manager... funny, but i have no idea why.

a plan is made - next to be accomplished - a flickr-like drupal based gallery setup. no more bridging between different systems. I believe what drupal offers today is enough to make a simple web photo gallery. Only question is - how?

Angie from Lullabot made a very good tutorial on creating a flickr like drupal web gallery. It was then 2006, and we only had 4.6 then. Today we have drupal 6.4 - can we do better?

finally took the time to tidy up my long-deserted online photo album. But the quest now is - remove unnecessary files, and reorganize them. I realise the good old gallery 1 web album made lots of *.sized.jpg and *.thumb.jpg, so going to every directory to remove them manually will take quite some time.

so i looked around for some CLi power. and i know even though it is simple for many of you there, i don't do that often so i have to relearn this :) it is at the end rather simple. my best find was to use find (he he a pun?). it does the job pretty well:

a few things you must/can try out, for your new Asus Eee PC:

1. Install Ubuntu EEE
Instead of installing the original Ubuntu, i found Ubuntu-eee. The team hasdone a great job. What i did to get Ubuntu on my Eee PC was just: first, download iso. second, use Unetbootin to create a bootable USB with LiveC. third, install from USB on either SSD or SD card.

trying to switch between display modes under linux had never been easy. At least with xrandr 1.2 things are much better than before - i can finally change display mode without restarting Xorg. But the "standard" FN-F7 was never a working trigger i can use. Being lazy, i never go looking for solution... until today.