Monthly Archives: June 2007

give HEAD to your loved ones… and HTML formatting

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Well, I’m at home right now, the “real” home, where my parents live and it’s great. My mother is pampering me of course as usual and it feels good.

Happy Birthday Litics, all the best, and I’m looking forward for the small “get together” you promised, I’m glad you liked the present. You should know I had nothing to do with choosing it. Just for the sake of the argument of course.

And talking about presents, Calin, my colleague at WiF:)) sent me today a pretty cool link for a gift someone could make to someone else… Of course, the second someone should be a girl, and at least her should be an HTML enthusiast. Why? well, just look at the images below…

head1.jpghead2.jpghead3.jpghead4.jpghead5.jpg

You could have found it on the etsy.com earrings on-line shop. The text near the earrings it’s quite funny so I’ll just paste it here:

Make sure you don’t walk around without a properly formatted Head. While we cannot ensure that Google will properly index the contents of your brain, these earrings could help. Be W3C verified. Always close your tags!

Calin will be starting his own blog soon, and of course, I’ll announce it here. Stay on the lookout.

Soma Cube

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I decided to work down town today. Got my lappy in my backpack, decided on a location and went for it. 28 degrees outside, so I said I needed a place where I could chill out. I decided to go to La Tevi club, on Potaissa street. Yet another c*free hotspot I’m proud of. I got here, and I met Cornel, the voice of Guerrillas. We played some darts, we had a beer and a long talk, and now I’m enjoying my wireless freedom writing this entry on the blog, and taking a break from work.

soma_cube.gif

Last night Simona, returned from France, and now the trio is back together. Ovidiu(her boyfriend), Simona and me. She was in Nice, France with an Erasmus Scholarship. All great up till now, just that she knew I liked puzzles and she got an interesting one for me. A Soma Cube!!! Thus, the title of the post. The puzzle is great, you get 7 distinct pieces of wood, which can be taken apart, and put back as a cube.

I googled it a bit, and I found a lot of history behind this puzzle. Never heard of it before, but still, a puzzle. 240 possibilities to use he 7 pieces and create the cube, so I guess I’ll start reading about it and trying to find them.

A search on Google for the Soma Cube will get you some nice results, so that you’ll know what I’m talking about. Getting back to work now, and trying to enjoy my work&chillout session…

somacube2.gif

Ubuntu resolution and sound

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Eye candy as it is, Ubuntu+Beryl on my Acer TravelMate 2482NWXMi didn’t allow a resolution change higher than 1024×768. The problem is solved with the 915resolution package. So, if you have the same problem I was facing, just install the package, restart your X server and voilà: 1280×800.

Search for the package:

marius@OliveJuice:~$ sudo aptitude update

marius@OliveJuice:~$ sudo aptitude upgrade

marius@OliveJuice:~$ aptitude search 915resolution
p 915resolution - resolution modification tool for Intel graphic chipset

Install the package:

marius@OliveJuice:~$ sudo aptitude install 915resolution

And now restart your X server by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Backspace on your keyboard, or just reboot Ubuntu. After restarting X, or reboting, go to System > Preferences > Screen Resolution, and select 1280×800.

My second problem today with my lappy, was that I tried watching a movie and couldn’t do it without plugging in my headphones since my laptop speakers wouldn’t work. Everything was fine with a jack plugged in, but the speakers just didn’t want to work, so I did a little bit of digging. First off, let’s see our sound cards:

marius@OliveJuice:~$ lspci | grep Audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)

If this matches, you should be on the right path, by following up here. I found on the Ubuntu Bug tracker bug number #94373. Long story told short, I read there, modified 1 file, and voilà: I have sound on the laptop speakers.

root@OliveJuice:~# echo "options snd-hda-intel model=auto" >> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
root@OliveJuice:~ # rmmod snd-hda-intel
root@OliveJuice:~# modprobe snd-hda-intel

The important thing here, is the first command, the echo redirected to the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base file. It adds the snd_hda_intel model=auto. The rmmod command might say that the module is in use, and cannot be unloaded, but that’s hardly a problem. Just reboot, and your speakers should work. Mine sure did.

Now, that was easy wasn’t it? tweak here, tweak there, and thanks to the Open Source community out there, amost everything can be fixed in a matter of minutes if someone already had that problem, or in a matter of days, if this is a new bug. Developers are always ready to help out.

Last night Alexandra wanted a song so much, that I decided to look for it. It’s “Lissie – Bright Side“. The reason for this was this commercial: http://youtube.com/watch?v=4Reb_l8Zw-U or, the second version: http://youtube.com/watch?v=U1ZHk-NZWLw
Gotta wrap it up now, since my Whisher Beta Tester invite mail just popped into my inbox, and I was looking forward to that since yesterday.

Tha! Tha! and don’t forget, Wireless is FUN! 😉

Cablul Wireless…

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Deci nu cred asa ceva… Tocmai ma pregateam sa ies din casa, si primesc un link de la Ovidiu: “Trebuie sa vezi asta… e geniala” Nu am bagat-o in seama o vreme, si in timp ce ma spalam pe dinti am dat play. Surpriza vine de la Darius, si cred ca ati ghicit, este vorba de un Cablu Wireless, de la Flamingo!!!! Sper sa nu fie scump

Enjoy!

Code monkey

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Aveam o problema cu un debian zilele trecute:

# aptitude update
......
Fetched 5562B in 13s (421B/s)
Reading package lists... Done
W: There is no public key available for the following key IDs:
B5D0C804ADB11277
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems

In mod normal problema ar putea fi rezolvata cu un simplu:

# apt-key update

ne spune Kurt Fitzner dar la mine nu a functionat. Am mai sapat un pic, ca nu se poate sta asa cu warningurile pe ecran fara sa faci nimic, si am ajuns pe pagina lui Alexey Kovyrin care are o alta solutie care functioneaza:

# gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv-keys XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
...
# apt-key add /root/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
...
# apt-get update
...

Erorile au disparut, aptitude functioneaza corect acum.

Evident, poate ca o sa imi spui acum “Dar de ce folosesti aptitude, si nu folosesti good ol' apt-get?” Pai raspunsul este extrem de simplu… RTFM… dar o sa imi zici “mi-e leneeee...” ok atunci, pe scurt:

Reason: “In some cases, the use of apt–get for installing packages
instead of aptitude might make aptitude consider a package as “unused”
and schedule it for removal.” [Debian Etch Release Notes, Chapter
4.2.1].

sau arunca o privire pe aici: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/aptitude

Deci, daca tot nu v-am convins, have fun with your good ol’ apt-get and don’t blame me when the fat lady yells she doesn’t have all her dependencies met…

Sa trecem acum la chestii mai serioase, un clip pe YouTube azi m-a facut sa zambesc, chiar daca eu nu sunt un “code monkey” ci mai mult un “admin monkey” 😉 … Enjoy!

Sandwich…

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Reading my e-mails since 5AM this morning, I stumbled upon one which was hilarious. I’m a huge comic fan, rss feeding myself wulffmorgenthaler.com, Fredo & Pidjin – who just turned two a couple of days ago, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY! and keep them coming!

Returning to my morning dose of coffee, errm, comic strips, I was talking about this one:

sandwich.png

It made me laugh so hard, that I decided to blog about it. For those of you who know what sudo is, KUDOS of course, for those who don’t, just RTFM! sudo(8), sudoers(5).

Gluma bolnava

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Nu stiu cati dintre voi stiti da in state e o nebunie totala cu telemarketingul. Si nu ala ca suni la numerele de pe ecran si castigi zece milioane de lei daca reusesti sa treci de toti robotii si sa rezolvi corect integrama, anagrama, sau testul incredibul de IQ care iti este pus in fata, ci genul de telemarketing prin care esti sunat zilnic daca nu de cateva ori pe zi de companii fantoma, care iti promit marea cu sarea sisteme video, audio, masini de spalat sau dat picioare in fund. Nu cred ca totul este atat de roz, adica sa te sune omu, sa iti spuna ca ai castigat, et voila, ai un nou aspirator, pentru ca atunci toti ar sta langa telefoane si s-ar ruga sa ii sune si pe ei… Dar asta e o alta poveste.

Am dat azi peste o inregistrare a unei asemenea convorbiri, care in secunda doi s-a transformat intr-o gluma bolnava la adresa tipului de la compania de telemarketing. Have fun 😉