I am finding Zim (the desktop wiki-like note-taking software) SO useful for random on-the-fly notetaking!


Zim is like a wiki, todo checklist, notebook, LaTeX scratchpad all rolled into one! I think I like the todo checklist and LaTeX parts the best. It has this nifty dvipng plugin that generates small png images for equations. You could just take these equation pngs and stick them anywhere.

Like here.


Not only is it invading my desktop, it is invading the cloud. I set up cloud sync of my notebooks through SME sync to Skydrive. Now, that is one fail-proof hyperlinked universal brain dump.

I am making shortcuts left, right and centre in the Gnome 3 interface.

Turn on shortcut editing

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface can-change-accels true

Hover mouse over the menu entry
Press Delete
Press new shortcut combo

Turn off shortcut editing

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface can-change-accels false

I have been learning how to write functions in R. They are core to learning the language instead of just using what other people have written for their purposes. They make tailored manipulations in R easier. I am going to document the function writing system here, step by step so I can progressively write better functions and yet not forget the basics

Basic Syntax

NewFunction <- function (input){
answer <- some manipulation with the input
answer
}

• NewFunction is the name of the new function.
• function is the R function that creates functions.
• input is the "argument" of a function
• { delimits the beginning of the function
• } delimits the end of the function
• the last statement (in this case, just "answer", returns the answer as the output of the function. I could also have said return(answer).

It took me all this while to find out that one of my greatest annoyances in Gnome 3 is actually solvable by a simple change in position of my finger while typing the alt-tab combination.


Alt + Tab
Switches Applications

and

Alt + ~
Switches Windows


Reclaim the maximize and minimize buttion. Because sometimes, you just don't want to let go of the stylus (or mouse).

gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/shell/windows/button_layout --type string :minimize,maximize,close

Sweet. Two more annoyances banished.

Sometimes you can only pamper it with so much olive oil.



It's delicious sans mucilage or not.

I found it. At last.



TortoiseSVN was so good on windows that I really started to miss its awesome GUI features on linux. The clever thing to do would probably have been to guess that it would be named after some other herbivorous domestic pet. But I found it after a determined search instead. Linux royalty usually scoff at GUI solutions, but to me, they are an invaluable little tool in saving some brainspace and frustrations.

To install RabbitVCS on Fedora 15

sudo yum install rabbitvcs*

BUT. And there is a big BUT.

RabbitVCS won't run in some 64 bit environments

Some distributions, such as 64 bit Fedora, put 64 bit libraries in the /usr/lib64 directory, whereas nautilus-python (the program that lets us extend nautilus) assumes all libraries are in the /usr/lib directory. This is a nautilus-python bug. The current workaround is to create a symlink: ln -s /usr/lib64/libpython2.6.so /usr/lib/libpython2.6.so

That fix didn't work for me because RabbitVCS doesn't work with Nautilus 3.x YET. But the developer posted recently on the blog that a new release is not far away. I can't wait. Command-lining SVN is tedium that I can do without.

I finally installed the Google talk plugin on Fedora 15 last night. I used the official x86_64 rpm package on the Google talk page. It pulled in a ton of dependencies. When I checked later, it had updated/installed all of these:

Oct 22 23:41:03 Installed: libgcc-4.6.1-9.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:04 Installed: nss-softokn-freebl-3.12.10-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:05 Installed: glibc-2.14-5.i686
Oct 22 23:41:06 Updated: audit-libs-2.1.3-1.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:07 Updated: glib2-2.28.8-1.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:07 Installed: zlib-1.2.5-3.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:08 Installed: libjpeg-turbo-1.1.1-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:09 Installed: freetype-2.4.4-5.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:09 Installed: libstdc++-4.6.1-9.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:10 Updated: libuuid-2.19.1-1.4.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:10 Updated: libblkid-2.19.1-1.4.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:11 Updated: libjpeg-turbo-1.1.1-1.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:11 Updated: krb5-libs-1.9.1-5.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:12 Installed: libtiff-3.9.5-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:12 Installed: 2:libpng-1.2.46-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:13 Installed: libgpg-error-1.9-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:14 Installed: libselinux-2.0.99-4.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:14 Installed: gamin-0.1.10-9.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:15 Installed: glib2-2.28.8-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:16 Installed: 2:libogg-1.2.2-3.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:16 Updated: 1:cups-libs-1.4.8-5.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:17 Installed: atk-2.0.0-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:17 Installed: libgcrypt-1.4.6-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:18 Installed: libICE-1.0.6-3.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:18 Installed: libcom_err-1.41.14-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:19 Installed: 1:dbus-libs-1.4.6-5.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:19 Updated: libmount-2.19.1-1.4.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:20 Updated: libXi-1.4.3-2.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:20 Installed: avahi-libs-0.6.30-3.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:20 Installed: 1:libvorbis-1.3.2-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:21 Installed: flac-1.2.1-6.fc12.i686
Oct 22 23:41:21 Installed: libsndfile-1.0.25-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:22 Installed: jasper-libs-1.900.1-17.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:23 Installed: libv4l-0.8.5-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:23 Installed: pixman-0.20.2-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:23 Installed: libXau-1.0.6-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:24 Installed: libxcb-1.7-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:24 Installed: libX11-1.4.3-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:25 Installed: libXrender-0.9.6-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:25 Installed: libXext-1.2.0-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:26 Installed: libXfixes-5.0-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:27 Installed: libXrandr-1.3.1-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:27 Installed: libXi-1.4.3-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:27 Installed: libXcomposite-0.4.3-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:28 Installed: gdk-pixbuf2-2.23.3-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:29 Installed: libXtst-1.2.0-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:30 Installed: libXdamage-1.1.3-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:31 Installed: libXcursor-1.1.11-3.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:32 Installed: libXinerama-1.1.1-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:33 Installed: xcb-util-0.3.6-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:34 Installed: expat-2.0.1-11.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:39 Installed: fontconfig-2.8.0-3.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:39 Installed: cairo-1.10.2-3.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:40 Installed: libXft-2.2.0-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:40 Installed: tcp_wrappers-libs-7.6-60.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:41 Installed: libuuid-2.19.1-1.4.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:42 Installed: libSM-1.2.0-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:43 Installed: alsa-lib-1.0.24-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:43 Installed: audit-libs-2.1.3-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:44 Installed: keyutils-libs-1.2-7.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:44 Installed: krb5-libs-1.9.1-5.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:45 Installed: libtasn1-2.7-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:45 Installed: gnutls-2.10.5-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:46 Installed: 1:cups-libs-1.4.8-5.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:47 Installed: libasyncns-0.8-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:47 Installed: pulseaudio-libs-0.9.22-5.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:48 Installed: libthai-0.1.14-4.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:49 Updated: util-linux-2.19.1-1.4.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:51 Updated: 1:cups-1.4.8-5.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:52 Updated: libv4l-0.8.5-1.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:52 Updated: audit-libs-python-2.1.3-1.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:53 Updated: audit-2.1.3-1.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:54 Installed: pango-1.28.4-1.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:56 Updated: gtk2-2.24.4-2.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:41:58 Installed: gtk2-2.24.4-2.fc15.i686
Oct 22 23:41:58 Updated: gtk2-immodule-xim-2.24.4-2.fc15.x86_64
Oct 22 23:42:00 Installed: google-talkplugin-2.3.2.0-1.x86_64

Notice how it has installed a ton of i686 libraries. Why? Is it a wrapper-based solution of some kind? Does that mean that there is really no native 64bit Google talk application for linux but only one that is wrapped and served on 64bit systems using i686 libraries?

Found an answer to this on... google forums.

Video Chat Eng. Blue, Google Employee said on 7/6/11:
The x86_64 google-talkplugin package currently contains one file which has not yet been fully ported to 64-bit. That file is 32-bit even in the x86_64 package, and as a result the package has some i686 dependencies. We are working toward a fully 64-bit version of google-talkplugin but in the meantime we recommend users to simply allow the package to install all of its dependencies.

Some? That looks like a tonload of i686 dependencies.

For some hideous reason Fedora 15 still has a release from 2007 cluttering its repositories. But it's thankfully pretty easy to install and get a recent TEX environment up and running in Fedora 15.

All instructions are from here:

First, in a terminal, do

# rpm -i

This adds the yum repository for the TEX LIVE system to the package managment system on linux.

Follow this step by:

yum clean all
yum install texlive

Individual packages can also be installed commandline. For eg.

yum install 'tex(epsfig.sty)'

I currently need:

latin1.sty
fullpage.sty
color.sty
array.sty
longtable.sty
calc.sty
multirow.sty
hhline.sty
ifthen.sty

About Sewing Machines!



Yeah! Those links are SO impressive they need a post of their own.

The articles are worth their alphabets in super-nova explosions for anyone who wants a carefully written investigative review about ALL the sewing machines and brands in the market.

It reads like a soap opera of who's sleeping with who in the sewing machine industry. Basically, this is the summary of that article:

1. Bernina -- the royalty of sewing machines. If you have $8K, then get this. Else move along to the next

2. Viking | Pfaff -- similar but Pfaffs are Vikings manufactured in Eastern Europe. Vikings are manufactured in Sweden. Vikings preferable. Still expensive but you will make up the expense in smooth running and headache-freedom,

3. Janome | “Upper End” Brother | Baby Lock | Kenmore -- similar budget inconsistency, May or may not work for you.

4. Elna | “Big Box Mart” Brother | Singer | White -- Worst. Avoid if serious.

I am leaning towards a Viking.

.

With mascarpone, blueberry and lingonberry preserves, a huge fresh ginger root, cloves, nutmeg, almonds, whole wheat flour, flax seed, applesauce, milk and baking soda for the leavening.



Even though I added a good sized ginger root chunk, it's not spicy. Next time, I will probably add even more. I purposefully mixed the doughly roughly so that I would get the hard crusty exterior and the bread would be slightly crispy. I don't particularly like moist bread. They don't toast too well. Unfortunately, it wasn't dry enough because in spite of all these precautions it's rather moist. Maybe I should have waited for it to cool down instead of slicing through it like the hungry, impatient and greedy person that I totally am.