Posterous

Semper Idem

All that is mine, I carry with me

KDE, DPI and Sub-Pixel hinting

In short, most fonts are designed only for 96DPI and 120DPI and look horribly with other DPIs. Since X by default computes real DPI and we just use it, while GNOME forces it to 96DPI, we get a lot of "KDE has ugly fonts", despite us doing things "properly". Go figure.
via lists.kde.org

First thing and I meant the very first thing to do after I install KDE? Change that fuckin' DPI!

1. Append "Xft.dpi: 96" to the file at $ nan ~/.Xresources
2. "The key was in the second [X-*-Core] section of kdmrc. I added -dpi 75 to the XserverArgsLocal part of that section and now everything works at the correct DPI." from here. You should find kdmrc in /etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc

Also read article for a better understanding of 'why fonts rendering sucks so much on KDE'.

Despite all these tweaks, KDE still does not measure up to how good Gnome looks. Sigh.

Filed under  //   ubuntu  
Posted December 6, 2009
// 0 Comments

BSNL WLL/NIC Card configuration in Ubuntu Karmic

Since I upgraded to Jaunty on the Desktop and Karmic on my EEE, the nm-applet refused to connect to my BSNL WLL/NIC card and upon a little inverstigation I figured I could connect via pppconfig rather easily.

Simply install "pppconfig" via Synaptic Package Manager, open terminal run pppconfig like this...

sudo pppconfig bsnl

then follow the instructions on screen and use CHAP method of authentication, save and quit the wizard. Connect by this command in the terminal.

pon bsnl 

that's it! :)

Filed under  //   ubuntu  
Posted November 25, 2009
// 2 Comments

Tetravex

The only game I like (apart from Mahjongg of course).


So which one of you can beat my best -- 59seconds?

Filed under  //   ubuntu  
Posted October 28, 2009
// 6 Comments

My cron jobs setup for BSNL Happy Hour

sindhu@sindhu-eee:~/Desktop$ sudo fcrontab -l
[sudo] password for sindhu:
08:11:46 listing root's fcrontab
51 07 * * * pkill java
52 07 * * * cutter 192.168.1.2 30365
53 07 * * * router /home/sindhu/Desktop/bin/router.exp system restart
55 07 * * * /etc/init.d/networking stop
08 08 * * * shutdown -r now
I run a couple of jobs same as root cause I want to make double sure that all torrent connections have died.
sindhu@sindhu-eee:~/Desktop$ fcrontab -l
08:12:24 listing sindhu's fcrontab
#Switch off/on to get new IP
05 02 * * * cnetworkmanager -o on
06 02 * * * sh /home/sindhu/Desktop/bin/ipaddr.sh > /home/sindhu/Desktop/bin/ipaddr-bfr.txt
07 02 * * * expect /home/sindhu/Desktop/bin/router.exp system restart
10 02 * * * sh /home/sindhu/Desktop/bin/telnetbsnl.sh > /home/sindhu/Desktop/bin/bsnltime.txt
10 02 * * * date > /home/sindhu/Desktop/bin/todaydate.txt
10 02 * * * sh /home/sindhu/Desktop/bin/ipaddr.sh > /home/sindhu/Desktop/bin/ipaddr-bfr.txt

#launch torrent client and then kill it
15 02 * * * DISPLAY=:0 && /usr/bin/azureus
17 02 * * * DISPLAY=:0 && /usr/bin/firefox --new-tab http://reader.google.com

#kill java and vuze
45 07 * * * pkill java

#disconnect
48 07 * * * expect /home/sindhu/Desktop/bin/router.exp system restart
50 08 * * * cnetworkmanager -o off

Filed under  //   ubuntu  
Posted October 17, 2009
// 9 Comments

Nethogs and Cutter

I am on a limited bandwidth quota during the daytime and hence get absolutely paranoid if I see the modem lights blinking for no reason, triggering the meaning: Some rogue process is eating ma bandwidth, PANIC!

So here are two useful tool to soothe the paranoia: nethogs and cutter, the part I get annoyed with: both require root privileges to run.

Nethogs is a tools that will show you which connections/programs are making tcp/ip connections whereas cutter allows you to cut connections from a particular IP and port like this...

    sudo cutter 192.168.1.2 30365

where the IP is my internal LAN IP and the port could be anything you'd use for your particular programs such as torrent clients, which often don't die quickly despite a pkill.

Both of these are available in your Ubuntu package repository.

Filed under  //   ubuntu  
Posted October 7, 2009
// 0 Comments