For quite a moment now, I’ve been using the Aurora GTK engine and theme. Nevertheless, there was a thing that slightly disturbed me: the double scrollbar-button-with-up-arrow. So, firstly, I’ve installed Ubuntu-Tweaker, thinking that would do the configuration trick easily. But then, I found nothing in it about this. So I’ve tried gconf-editor. Nothing there either. Well, beyond this point, I started to imagine that the double-button thing had nothing to do with the configuration of Gnome. I’ve looked at the Aurora files, and searched the Interwebs for some theme-creation documentation. I found this. Especially, the has-secondary-backward-stepper interested me. Looking in Aurora’s gtkrc file, I found a line like:

GtkScrollbar::has-secondary-backward-stepper = 1

Switching the 1 to a 0, and reloading the theme has threw the extra-button away.

Here is the script I’ve written to display on conky next Tasque ToDo items:

#!/usr/bin/env python
 
import sqlite3
from os.path import expanduser
import pprint
from sys import argv
from math import ceil
 
limit = 0
widthLimit = 0
if len(argv) > 1:
	limit = int(argv[1])
if len(argv) > 2:
	widthLimit = int(argv[2])
 
con = sqlite3.connect(expanduser("~/.config/tasque/sqlitebackend.db"))
con.isolation_level = None
cur = con.cursor()
 
counter = 0
for lastIteration in range(0,2):
	if lastIteration == 0:
		cur.execute("SELECT Name, State FROM Tasks WHERE DueDate >= 0 ORDER BY DueDate asc, Name COLLATE NOCASE asc;")
	else:
		cur.execute("SELECT Name, State FROM Tasks WHERE DueDate < 0 ORDER BY Name COLLATE NOCASE asc;")
 
	currentItem = cur.fetchone()
	while currentItem and ((limit != 0 and counter < limit) or limit == 0):
		if(currentItem[1] == 0):
			if(widthLimit == 0):
				print currentItem[0].encode("utf-8")
			else:
				for i in range(int(ceil(len(currentItem[0].encode("utf-8"))/widthLimit + 1))):
					print currentItem[0].encode("utf-8")[i*widthLimit:(i+1)*widthLimit]
			counter+=1
		currentItem = cur.fetchone()
 
con.close()

The .conkyrc line to display 5 next ToDo items using this script is:

${exec tasqueTasksScript 5}

If you want to go to the next line after 50 characters, use:

${exec tasqueTasksScript 5 50}

The new Ubuntu has been released, and with it, new versions of software packages. Some of you may have remarked that the Amazon MP3 downloader doesn’t seem to work any more (actually, I expect it to be not-functional, but I haven’t had it before upgrading to lucid, so all I can say is that installing it AFTER the upgrade doesn’t work. By the way if someone has the problem with the software installed BEFORE the upgrade, let me know, I’ll upgrade this post with the new information).

Though, I’ve got it installed, and it works. All I’ve done is to get old needed packages from the Hardy package repository, and get them installed. Then I’ve installed the Amazon mp3 downloader, and now, all works like a charm. I know this workout is not the best way to get things done, but until Amazon updates its mp3 downloader, I think that’s the best way to make it work.

Edit: I’ve made an architecture-independent shell script (I’ve only tested it on my i686 box, a review on an other architecture will be welcomed) to prepare your distribution for Amazon MP3 downloader. Download it here, then check “Allow executing file as program” in Properties > Permissions, then launch it in a terminal.

xkcd is one of the nicest web comics to me. Certainly because it’s about things I like (sarcasm, maths, and language). Also, I used one of his comics in one of my posts, and I may occasionally do it again. If you don’t know his webcomic, I’d recommand you to take some time and have a look at it.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, and that’s mainly because I started a lot of drafts, but finished none of ‘em. I’ve observed that, excepted for articles you prepare during a looooo[...]ong time, short abstracts (or excerpts) are the only way to post something on a web-log without talking about your personal life. So, I’ll make this post short.

The word “work” is used to designate and talk about a lot of things, in various situations, but mainly, it means “labor”. And I remarked something interesting: people advocating about “work”. I say, those who regularly publicly and loudly tell that work is great and that people should work more. I don’t talk here about persons who simply say “I work hard and I have merit” (even if sometimes, people who advocate “work” say that too), but about those who pretend to work hard and complain about others, who, obviously, don’t work hard enough.

The fact is: you work for money (since we live in a capitalist world), and you live FROM money. So, basically, you live from your work (the money intermediate is not the matter here, and it’s a whole subject). So, if you don’t work, you can’t expect to live comfortably. Okay, but…

To work is NOT to do, I mean, IT IS NEITHER to do what others, nor you qualify as “work”. It is simply something that had to be done (for someone else…) and that nobody would have done for free. And, most of the time, people are lying: their work can easily be done, with a reasonable learning time, by anyone (exceptions are medical doctors, lawyers, etc.). For instance, «playing or composing music» is not working until someone ask you for some.

If I post about “work” and its meaning, it’s because I think that too many people are pretending to work (doing noting but fooling others, and earning money from their ignorance), and overwhelm other people about their pretended “laziness”. Actually, I generally have observed this kind of behavior from people who think that, for any reason (political, religious, theological, etc.), they are superior to the rest of humanity. So, when I hear “people should work more”, it’s either from a tired labor-worker, or from a dumb-ass who wants to slave us all. Work isn’t necessary enslavery, but if you don’t pay attention, you’ll be enslaved before even having a chance to understand it.

That is simply a though I had, feel free to give feedback, I’d greatly appreciate to discuss about this.

This morning I suddenly realized by waking up that I do “nested” dreams, and, in English, on the top of that! What I mean by “nested” is that I “pause” dreams when I encounter a impossible/illogical   thing/task/etc., and start a new dream from this point, in order to resolve the parent one’s issue.
I say, my soul is lost!