Shifted to WordPress!!

Owing to really cool features provided by WordPress (www.wordpress.com), I have shifted to it.

http://unpredictablerulz.wordpress.com

PS: All posts of this blog (except this one) have been ported there, so there is no need to keep checking this one.

Have a break, have RSI-Break

www.kde-apps.org is a great site, has tonnes of great new small big applications for the KDE user. I was browsing through it, and found so many new and great applications.

Some of them were Hydrogen (some kind of audio mixing tool for guitarists), a couple of tools like FruityLoops, a lot of tweaks and shortcut apps for doing varied jobs, like KCleanup to remove unwanted files, etc etc.

Another one was RSIBreak. Its a tool that helps people like me. Generally working continuously on the computer can cause so many problems. It keeps running in the background and after a scheduled amount of time, it asks the user to take a break. There are two types of breaks, a short break (for me its after every 10 mins, for 20 seconds) and a long break (for 3 mins after every hour). It looks for keyboard and mouse activity when its break time, and resets to 20 seconds or 3 mins if it detects activity. IF the user keeps working, after 3 activity detection events, it locks the system and freezes. The user has the option of 'skipping' the break or 'logging off', but I think most users will then at least stand up, and stretch instead of taking off the break signal. Really cool thing for those who stress a lot. RSI means Repetetive Strain Injury, and this app is to prevent that.

I also came to know that my KOffice contains a nice component called Kivio. Its the same thing as MS Visio. I just opened it and was amazed to find the same interface and functionality. Really cool app and a good answer to people who keep telling me to make them count a replacement of Visio in Linux. Cheers!

KDE and Cricket scorecard...

I was just seeing the scorecard in the India-Pakistan match. I wondered whether I could help out my browser from those refreshes. I wasn't seeing each and every line of the commentry, so why not have something better, like a desktop scorecard, but a little less annoying.

I wrote a script that will SPECIFICALLY give me a live scorecard of TODAY's CRICKET MATCH. It can be modified to work more generically. Here is a sample output.




Just download it and run. It will work if you have KDE.

#!/bin/sh

while [ 1 ]
do
        rm -f IND_PAK_ODI4_16FEB2006.main.html
        wget http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/IND_IN_PAK/SCORECARDS/frames/IND_PAK_ODI4_16FEB2006.main.html
        info1=`cat IND_PAK_ODI4_16FEB2006.main.html | grep overs| grep Cricinfo| cut -f 2 -d \'`
        info2=`cat IND_PAK_ODI4_16FEB2006.main.html | grep overs| grep Current|cut -f 2- -d :|cut -f 1 -d \<`
        info2="Current Partnership: $info2"
        info3=`cat IND_PAK_ODI4_16FEB2006.main.html | grep overs| grep Last|cut -f 2- -d :|cut -f 1 -d \<`
        info3="Last batsman: $info3"
        info="$info1 --- $info2 ---  $info3"
        kdialog --passivepopup "$info" 30 &
done

Eat cricket, sleep cricket, use only K D E!!

Some KDE 3.5.1 Screenshots..

More awaited as and when I use it.

KDE 3.5.1 on FC4 : Job accomplished!!

* Download all rpms using the script.
* rpm -e kdeartwork-icons
* mv kdeaccessibility-kttsd-gstreamer-3.4.3-1.0.fc4.kde.i386.rpm ..

Dependencies and download links
===============================
libsamplerate.so.0
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/libsamplerate-0.1.2-3.fc4.i386.rpm

libstdc++.so.6
ftp://fr.rpmfind.net/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/libstdc++-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

libjasper-1.701.so.1
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/jasper-1.701.0-9.fc4.i386.rpm

liblcms.so.1
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/lcms-1.15-1.fc4.i386.rpm

libsndfile.so.1
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/libsndfile-1.0.11-3.fc4.i386.rpm

libIlmImf.so.2
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/OpenEXR-1.2.2-5.fc4.i386.rpm

libslp.so.1
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/openslp-1.2.1-4.fc4.i386.rpm

libgnokii.so.2
ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/rpm.livna.org/fedora/4/i386/RPMS.lvn/gnokii-0.6.10-0.lvn.1.4.i386.rpm

libgpgme.so.11
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/gpgme-1.0.3-2.fc4.i386.rpm

fortune-mod
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/fortune-mod-1.99.1-4.fc4.i386.rpm

kdelibs-apidocs
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/core/development/i386/Fedora/RPMS/kdelibs-apidocs-3.5.1-2.1.i386.rpm

mathml-fonts
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/mathml-fonts-1.0-19.fc4.noarch.rpm

libAiksaurus-1.2.so.0
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/aiksaurus-1.2.1-7.i386.rpm

libqscintilla.so.6
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/qscintilla-1.6-3.fc4.i386.rpm

librecode.so.0
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/recode-3.6-19.fc4.i386.rpm

gnupg2
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/gnupg2-1.9.20-1.fc4.i386.rpm

libpth.so.20
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/pth-2.0.4-3.i386.rpm

libtunepimp.so.3
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/libtunepimp-0.4.0-4.fc4.i386.rpm

libvisual.so.0
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/libvisual-0.2.0-6.fc4.i386.rpm

libksba.so.8
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/libksba-0.9.13-2.fc4.i386.rpm

pinentry
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/pinentry-0.7.1-4.i386.rpm

libstdc++-devel
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/libstdc++-devel-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

gcc-c++
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/gcc-c++-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

gcc
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/gcc-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

cpp
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/cpp-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

libgcc
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/libgcc-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

gcc-java
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/gcc-java-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

gcc-gfortran
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/gcc-gfortran-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

gcc-gnat
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/gcc-gnat-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

gcc-objc
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/gcc-objc-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

apr-devel
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/apr-devel-0.9.6-3.5.i386.rpm

apr
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/apr-0.9.6-3.5.i386.rpm

libmudflap-devel
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/libmudflap-devel-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

libmudflap
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/libmudflap-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

libgfortran
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/libgfortran-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

libgnat
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/libgnat-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

libgcj
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/libgcj-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

libgcj-devel
ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/libgcj-devel-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

libobjc
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/libobjc-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

libgcj-src
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/libgcj-src-4.0.2-8.fc4.i386.rpm

libtool -- multilib2
ftp://194.199.20.114/linux/fedora/core/updates/4/i386/libtool-1.5.16.multilib2-3.i386.rpm


Install attempt 1
=================

[root@unpredictable rpms]# rpm -hUv *.rpm /home/anurag/current/kde-3.5.1/rpms/*
warning: gnokii-0.6.10-0.lvn.1.4.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID a109b1ec
warning: /home/anurag/current/kde-3.5.1/rpms/activeheart-1.2.1-0.0.fc4.kde.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID ff6382fa
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
package openobex-1.0.1-3 (which is newer than openobex-1.0.1-0.1.fc4.kde) is already installed
package kdemultimedia-3.4.2-0.fc4.1mp3 (which is newer than kdemultimedia-3.5.1-1.1.fc4.kde) is already installed
package kdemultimedia-devel-3.4.2-0.fc4.1mp3 (which is newer than kdemultimedia-devel-3.5.1-1.1.fc4.kde) is already installed
package openobex-devel-1.0.1-3 (which is newer than openobex-devel-1.0.1-0.1.fc4.kde) is already installed
file /usr/share/mimelnk/application/chm.desktop from install of kdelibs-3.5.1-1.5.fc4.kde conflicts with file from package kdevelop-3.2.0-2
file /usr/lib/libmeanwhile.so.0.0.0 conflicts between attempted installs of libmeanwhile0-0.4.2-0.2.fc4.kde and meanwhile-0.3-0.1.fc4.kde
file /usr/lib/pkgconfig/meanwhile.pc conflicts between attempted installs of meanwhile-devel-0.3-0.1.fc4.kde and libmeanwhile0-devel-0.4.2-0.2.fc4.kde


Repair
======
rpm --force -Uvh kdemultimedia-3.4.2-0.fc4.1.i386.rpm kdemultimedia-devel-3.4.2-0.fc4.1.i386.rpm
mv openobex* ..

Install attempt 2
=================
[root@unpredictable rpms]# rpm -hUv *.rpm /root/rpms/*.rpm
warning: activeheart-1.2.1-0.0.fc4.kde.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID ff6382fa
warning: /root/rpms/gnokii-0.6.10-0.lvn.1.4.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID a109b1ec
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
file /usr/share/mimelnk/application/chm.desktop from install of kdelibs-3.5.1-1.5.fc4.kde conflicts with file from package kdevelop-3.2.0-2
file /usr/lib/libmeanwhile.so.0.0.0 conflicts between attempted installs of libmeanwhile0-0.4.2-0.2.fc4.kde and meanwhile-0.3-0.1.fc4.kde
file /usr/lib/pkgconfig/meanwhile.pc conflicts between attempted installs of meanwhile-devel-0.3-0.1.fc4.kde and libmeanwhile0-devel-0.4.2-0.2.fc4.kde

Repair
======
rpm -e kdevelop
mv meanwhile-* ..

Install attempt 3
=================
Works!

KDE 3.5.1 looks nice. Has some interesting features. First one I noticed was the really awesome "Network link status applet", just like the one in XP. Am still playing with it. KMplayer looks good too. Hopefully all will be okay. Cheers!!

KDE 3.5.1 on Fedora Core 4

Well, the newly released KDE 3.5.1 seems to be nice, with some good "Cosmetic repairs" plus added functionalities like the much required "plug in a CD and play" functionality inherently present in XP. To upgrade the existing version, it requires a painful download of too many RPMs, manually!

Here is a script to help the cause!

* Just create a new folder, say 'kde-3.5.1' and copy this script, say 'download.sh' into that.
* Create a directory 'kde-3.5.1/rpms'.
* cd kde-3.5.1
* chmod 755 download.sh
* ./download.sh

and you can even run this script 2-3-4-5-6 times at the same time in different shells, so that this script downloads the rpms intelligently, i.e. they cooperatively download all data! then try to install the rpms. if some rpms got corrupt, delete them and run the script to redownload. I am also downloading right now, so lets hope it works!

Given below is the script.


#!/bin/sh

export http_proxy="http://192.168.36.204:8080"
export ftp_proxy="http://192.168.36.204:8080"

# existance of the html page
[ -f index.html ]
if [ $? = "1" ]
then
wget http://apt.kde-redhat.org/apt/kde-redhat/fedora/4/i386/RPMS.stable/
fi

# list of rpms
[ -f rpms.txt ]
if [ $? = "1" ]
then
cat index.html | tr " " "\n"| grep href|cut -f 2 -d \"|grep m$ > rpms.txt
fi

# mirrors
[ -f mirrors.list ]
if [ $? = "1" ]
then
wget http://apt.kde-redhat.org/apt/kde-redhat/fedora/4/i386/mirrors.list
cat mirrors.list | grep "http:"| cut -f 1 -d " " > mirrors.list
fi

# choose and download
for i in `cat rpms.txt`
do
[ -f rpms/${i} ]
if [ $? = "1" ] # the file needs to be downloaded
then
echo "Downloading ... $i"
cd rpms
for k in `cat ../mirrors.list`
do
query="${k}/kde-redhat/fedora/4/i386/RPMS.stable/${i}"
echo $query
wget --tries=2 $query
[ -f $i ]
if [ $? = "0" ]
then
break
fi
done
cd ..
fi
done

Firefox :bypass proxy for 172.*.*.* solved!

In our network, we wish to bypass the proxy server for IP addresses like 172.16.*.* and 172.17.*.*, oops... this doesn't work in Firefox! Anyways, its not a great discovery, but, from somewhere I came to know the notation to be used for FIREFOX!

This is how you write it.

172.16.*.* ... means first two fields are fixed. First 2 .... so do ... 2 x 8 = 16.

write ... 172.16.0.0/16

and if you want 172.*.*.* ... 1 x 8 = 8

write 172.0.0.0/8

Simple! It just works. Cheers.