Behold, the Basra blackberry raid!

For a while there he investigated if my flip-flops and toes were edible but decided on the blackberries when he realized they weren't.

Clearly, the hardy rogue is up to no good when you are not around.

that I haven't figured out how to fix. (Solved whines are marked and in blue.)

1. Hot corner and dock are on the left: I am RIGHT HANDED dammit. So are a majority of people in the world. Stop pandering to left-handers or give us a way to switch the damn things. I HATE it when menus are on the left.
2. Gnome extensions are inconsistent and crash the shell often. I installed some gnome extensions to shift the dock and hot corner to the right but they are inconsistent in the sense that they may or may not work. Additionally, they crash the gnome shell one too many times for comfort. The better sounding extensions have to be installed manually from something called "git". I tried to follow these steps: Extensions But I am stuck on the compilation step because of not one but several errors that I can't make head or tail of...

   ./autogen.sh –prefix=$HOME/.local – enable-extensions=”dock”

1. Brightness settings are NEVER remembered! I hate this too. I get it that ATI cards are not the general linux favorite but atleast debian and ubuntoid versions can remember basic settings every time you login even though the proprietary ridiculously screwed up driver is not installed.
2. Chrome launches S.L.O.W. In debian and ubuntoid distros I used e4rat to prefetch applications I use the most so that they would start instantly. But here I can't install e4rat... or atleast I haven't figured out how to block fedora-readahead and install e4rat (because there is no rpm for it).
3. Terminal and windows cannot be made transparent. This seriously makes me want to switch to xfce4 with debian where things just work AND look good. :/

On the surface, all of the gloss seems nifty and the ability to connect remotely to work is great but these annoyances persist. Worse is I don't know how to get around them so they keep getting under my skin.

Other low grade irritants include:

• Nautilus. Yuckety yuck! Doesn't have a native way to launch in root view. Totally lacks the elegance and flexibility of Thunar. I miss Thunar a LOT whenever I am in file-browser view.
• That top panel: I want it to autohide, dammit! Why should I need an extension to do this simple thing?
• That top panel: I don't want all those icons on the right, I want them on the left or not at all. For example, I don't want the accessibility icon or the battery icon when its not charging. I have no way to remove those because right-clicking doesn't give me any customization options.
• Clock: I don't want it bang in the middle. It's not helpful. I want it extreme right.
• That top panel: I want to maximize windows over it without going into a full-screen F11 mode. That top panel is seriously a waste of screen estate.
• And yes, why can't themes work properly in Gnome 3? I know it's new and all but I hate the clunkiness in general.
• Fonts were miserable but I installed a different font-rendering engine and I am stuck in Verdana now, the only font that looks partway decent. Liberation Sans and Droid Sans still look like crap and give me a headache.

---

[SOLVED] Turns out the super/windows/meta key is reserved for bringing up the activities menu in Gnome 3. So you need to press it twice and hold it down before pressing any other alphabet keys (that make up the keyboard shortcut). This workaround will make a custom keyboard shortcut (involving the macro/super/windows key) work. (or don't use the macro/super/windows key for any custom shortcuts. Use the ctrl key instead). Source:

• Keyboard shortcuts for applications: Don't work if set under system settings > keyboard > custom shortcuts. You can make as many shortcuts as you want but they won't work. What's the point?! I know you can hit the windows key and start typing but I really like shortcuts. I set the same shortcuts across all my workstations and OSes. Its so annoying that I have to type more and remember what applications are called to get to things in gnome 3. For eg. browsers are always win-z everywhere for me. Now, I need to type win-chro before the icon for chrome comes up and then click on it to launch it. Not cool.

Hey (e:Paul), did you install the beta version of the flash player from the Adobe labs website here:

It's a tarball...

Update: The new beta from Adobe labs does work thanks to (e:Paul)'s suggestions. Just untar the thing, navigate to the folder and run these commands:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/google/chrome/plugins
sudo cp libflashplayer.so /opt/google/chrome/plugins/

Reboot.

Office mail war!



Oooh, the drama. I can't wait for the Google response. :)

I haven't been listening to enough lately... and I haven't been discovering any radically different artists lately. My average discovery rate usually hovers around 10-20 new artists every month but the last several months have been musical cesspits, more or less.

I can't stand any vocals in my music nowadays because it ruins the background concentration value. Heavy metal is ruled out for a while (except instrumental versions). Familiar selections of classical music have been getting an inordinate amount of playtime. Maybe it's time to delve into neoclassical and re-interpretations. I wonder if anyone has re-interpreted Chopin, my absolute favourite in romantic piano.


Or classical ballet. For example, I don't think I have ever heard the complete works of Leó Delibes and Ludwig Minkus before or any of their contemporaries who shaped the music of the ballet.

I could totally see why everyone is fascinated with snapping pics of our bike-boom-boxing resident 7 footer.



But I don't get this (e:Paul)-Paranoia-look(TM). What is that about?!

With one day free expedited shipping. No less.

DID IT!

Many thanks go out to (e:Paul) and Andy Grimm from the Fedora Project who messaged me a few days back to say that RTL8191SEvB does work with Fedora15 and offered to help.

For those of you who are stuck with this odd-man-out driver from Realtek: RTL8191SEvB and are ruing the loss of your wireless networks on Fedora15, here's the step by step guide.

1. Download the RTL8191SE driver from Get both RTL8192SE and RTL8191SE-VA2 if you are doubtful of what to get.

2. Extract it to its own directory. Navigate to that directory using the terminal.

cd /directory_you_extracted_the_RTL8191SEvB_driver

3. Try running the make command once you are in the directory:

make

4. You will see this message:

make -C /lib/modules/2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.x86_64/build M=~/Downloads/rtl_92ce_92se_92de_linux_mac80211_0003.0620.2011 modules
make: *** /lib/modules/2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.x86_64/build: No such file or directory. Stop.
make: *** [all] Error 2

5. Note the number in bold: 2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.x86_64. Append it behind the words "kernel-devel-" and key in this command in the terminal:

sudo yum install kernel-devel-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.x86_64

This will install the tools you need to compile the kernel.

6. Now in the terminal again, key in:

make

This will be followed by a ton of output and jargon mumbo-jumbo from the terminal. Once the cacophony quiets down type:

sudo make install

7. Reboot! Rejoice! Your wireless should be back.

I have finally realized that in the linux world, THIS all you need - a possibility of someone helping you out from the doldrums. If I wanted to go the roses-are-red/sky-is-blue-ad-nauseum rehash-famous-quotes route, I would say:

Making linux work = 78% dare-devilry + 22% possibility of help.

I have switched!

Thanks to some super-human effort by (e:paul), I am finally on planet Fedora and being awed by Gnome 3.

How superawesome is it that you can just start keying in ANYTHING that comes to your mind and if its an application it comes up directly and if not, you can just hit the wiki or google button. It finally re-defines having internet at your fingertips. Now if the browser could simply BE my desktop, that would be the next step to having the net RIGHT there.

LOVING it completely! It is like I have stepped into the next century!

Now, if only I could make this blasted wireless card work and the skype camera brightness light up more and get this flash installed...

Behold, the Birdman Terry!

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

Quite honestly, I have no idea how (e:Terry) even does that. I thought only birds had the laryngeal apparatus to produce such an elaborate guttural/chirping sound. I also heard (e:Terry)'s operatic take on one of George Clinton band's songs. It was nothing short of amazing. Which, begs the question:

Terry, why aren't you in musical theatre?