Carlsberg Elephant

Saw this in a supermarket so I thought I would try it out since mark said it was good. I know its lager so no need for ben to say "you've been in the sun to much, its smashed your brain in".
The only thing that interests in this beer is the 7.2% strength. It's a golden clear colour, a little more full bodied than a normal commercial larger but smells like a normal one. You wouldn't guess its 7.2% from the look and smell. The taste is sweet maltish, just like the normal boring Carlsberg lager, but it has more of kick with a little sourness and you can taste the extra alcohol finish.

Rating: Good for a lager
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Few of these you probably be singing

Finch

Anyone that has pidgin will have finch. It's the text-based version of pidgin. You can run it in a console. The main advantage is its fast, lightweight and more compatible with other unix OS's.
The buddy list with blurred contacts ;)

All the windows can be moved around within the program. And there is a an action menu to open the different windows like the buddy list and status options like below.

Moving around in finch is easy once you get the basics. To start it just use the command 'finch'. Tab moves from control to control. Depending on your META key (most likely alt) Alt-n/m moves windows left to right. Alt-c to close a window. Alt-a for action menu. Check out developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Finch for help with moving around.

Cant start x? Then it might be a good idea to start finch in a terminal and cry for help from a buddy :).


Don't have pidgin? pidgin.im/pidgin
Debian/Ubuntu users can try and install the deb from www.getdeb.net/release.php?id=955

The coolest dog of the 90's

...died one year today. Moose or better know as Eddie from Frasier and My Dog Skip. Considered the lassie of the 90s.

I was just flicking through wikipedia when I noticed his date of death, astonished it was one year today thought I would blog it since he is totally the coolest dog of the 90s.

Bomberclone

Whats to say? other than: Its a bomber man clone!
If you like Atomic Bomberman which is a real neat windows game. A true game. Nothing serious and simple game play. Good for passing time.


To install check out the homepage at bomberclone.sourceforge.net. Ubuntu users:
'sudo apt-get install bomberclone' ;).

Playing with ruby/sdl

Pretty tired right now. Been playing around with ruby/sdl most of the day. I looked at some of the examples in '/usr/share/doc/libsdl-ruby1.8/examples'. They have no comments but most are simple enough to run and play with to understand whats going on. There is also a tetris clone that is 275 lines of code. I found www.kmc.gr.jp/~ohai/rubysdl_doc.en.html, the ruby/sdl reference to be useful for looking up a few things.

I had a try at moving an image (in this case a image called icon.bmp, use the one in examples) around with the left, right, up and down keys. Could probably change the IF statements into case statements.

#Writen by DnH500. DnH500.blogspot.com
#you need a smallish icon.bmp image

require 'sdl'

#make the main window
SDL.init( SDL::INIT_VIDEO )
screen = SDL::setVideoMode(600,480,16,SDL::SWSURFACE)
SDL::WM::setCaption('moving around','')

#load image
image = SDL::Surface.loadBMP("icon.bmp")
image.setColorKey( SDL::SRCCOLORKEY || SDL::RLEACCEL ,0)
$image = image.displayFormat

#starting image postion
@x=0
@y=0

#move function
def move

if SDL::Key.press?(SDL::Key::RIGHT)
@x = @x + 10 #moves right
end

if SDL::Key.press?(SDL::Key::DOWN)
@y = @y + 10 #moves down
end

if SDL::Key.press?(SDL::Key::LEFT)
@x = @x - 10 #move left
end

if SDL::Key.press?(SDL::Key::UP)
@y = @y - 10 #move right
end

end

#main loop
while true
#on event
while event = SDL::Event2.poll
#scan keyboard input
SDL::Key.scan
#draw background
screen.fillRect(0,0,600,480,0)

#goto move function
move

#draw bmp image
screen.put(image,@x,@y)
#update
screen.updateRect(0,0,0,0)
end
end

I was surprised how easy sdl is. This stuff makes more sense to me than darkbasic (a windows game development basic). Plus with it being on linux it's an added bonus since I have never played with any graphics programing on linux before.
Now if I could work out a way to create a map with arrays I could start a 2d RPG.

Installing Ruby SDL

I was looking for something to use with ruby for graphics and I came across the sdl library in the repositories. I have to say theres little to go on. Hardly no documentation around to work with. I have also been trying to get rubygame to work.

You can install ruby sdl with
sudo apt-get install libsdl-ruby1.8

Want examples?
You find a whole bunch of ruby sdl programs in '/usr/share/doc/libsdl-ruby1.8/examples'.

Disable locking on laptop close

If your Linux box, like mine, is a laptop. You might want to disable a few power management/security features such as locking when the laptop lid is closed. Can be a bit of pain if you plug in a monitor and close the lid. I have talked to a few people with this problem on older versions of ubuntu.

On versions 6.06 and 6.10 you have to edit a file. You should follow ubuntu-tutorials.com...

For Ubuntu 7.04 - the Feisty Fawn I found the solution in a few seconds. All you have to do is find the power management preferences. There is a link on the screensaver preferences at the bottom. On the tab 'On AC power' there is an option for 'when lid is closed:'. Simply select 'do nothing'. Do the same on ' On Battery power' if you want to.

Dam that was so hard right!.. so heres a screen shot.

Avant Window Navigator

If your wanting a little bit of eye candy for your gnome desktop have a look at the avant dock. It's simple and looks good. Not only is it a launcher, it tracks open windows too.
A little example:

Notice no arrow underneath pidgin and Firefox because avant knows they are open. Nice idea.

A short video of it here:


To install the avant window navigator have a look here awn.wetpaint.com/page/Download.
Ubuntu users can add it to their sources.list repository following these instructions awn.wetpaint.com/page/Ubuntu+Feisty+Repository.

Ubuntu studio Gnome theme

I love the look of the ubuntu studio theme. Its probably not the most useable theme when thinking about human computer interaction design. The contracts of blacks on dark greys in menus might give some people a hard time.
But it looks great! It has blacks/dark greys/neon blue for somethings.

Follow this set of instructions on this blog:
www.belutz.net/2007/05/11/installing-ubuntu-studio-theme

Simple CLI Ruby Menu

input = ""
#loop until q is pressed
while input != 'q' do
puts "- Menu A, b or c"
input = gets().chomp()

if input == 'q'
puts( "Bye" )
elsif input == 'a'
puts( "a" )
elsif input == 'b'
puts( "b" )
elsif input == 'c'
puts( "c" )
else
puts ( "You didn't press a b c " )
end
#end loop
end