Time Unknown (Entries tagged as help needed)

Length does matter

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 22:14:39 +0200

It's true, length does matter - in cables. I need a Schuko (male) to IEC-C5 (male) cable and the shorter the better. Any idea where I could get one?

The thing is, my laptop charger has build-in cable of about 2 metres, so I hardly need 2 metres of cable on top of that most of the time, and all that cable takes bag space, and even adds weight. I could manage with even just 20cm long Schuko (male) to IEC-C5 (male) cable, but the shortest I have been able to find is 1 metre long.

Missing hibernation on gutsy

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:13:13 +0200

Ever since upgrading to gutsy I have had an unhappily hibernation free existence with my HP NC8230. I've tried a thing or five, but not being a heavyduty hardware geek, I'm pretty stumped. If you are the first person to come up with the fix for that, a fix that actually works, I'll give you 20 euros. Feel free to combine this with any other bounties out there.

Dates and themes

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 14:32:11 +0200

I noticed today that the permalinked entries do not show the date of writing. That's just naughty. I'm trying to decide whether to fix it for this theme or whether to change themes completely. What do you think?

Edit:
Thanks to the kind people of s9y.org, I got it fixed now. Seems I was fooled by the indentation used.

Dappling in music on Linux?

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:48:12 +0200

I would want to dapple in music but my efforts today were not very fruitful and resulted mostly in crashing applications and people telling me I need a real-time kernel. As the result I found myself pondering booting into Microsoft Windows in order to try that there. It was the first time for ages I wanted MS Win for something else than games. Certainty there must be something I can do on Linux to find out if I want to try dabbling in music more? Currently it feels Linux is less suited for making music than Commodore 64 was, and that cannot be, right?

Dear reader

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 07:15:43 +0200

Do you have hardware that is not completely supported in Linux? Did it's manufacturer release its full specs? If the device is listed on Drivers needed page, the answer is a resounding "No". Contact them today and tell them that you will not continue to buy from them if they will not supply the specs. Then stick to that when it comes the time to buy new hardware.

This kind of consumer-provided pressure is essentially important for getting manufacturers release specs. Without specs driver development for Linux is difficult and slow work. If you care about Linux, let the manufacturers know.

Seeking a virtual assistant

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 07:58:37 +0300

I'm wanting to try out having a virtual assistant. Would any of you have recommendations on ones with hourly rate 10 dollars or less?

Minimizing the plastic use

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:02:53 +0300

Almost every time I buy something, there is plastic wrapping or packaging involved. Many objects, like dvds and toilet paper, are wrapped in a thin layer of plastic. Others, like most shampoos, come in a plastic container that is not refillable. Finland does not properly recycle plastic from households, so most of of that plastic will end up in the landfill (what a pretty name for a mountain of garbage, by the way). Is there a way to minimize the plastic garbage generated by one's life?

Here are some ways I have found to reduce the amount of plastic garbage:

Don't go for disposables utensils or plates, choose the real ones instead.
Buy anything in plastic wrapping in largest possible package, thus minizing the wrapping ratio
Use shampoos and conditioners that come in refillable bottles.
Say "no, thank you" when stores offer you a plastic bag and use a permanent bag of your choice instead.
When possible, buy stuff used as that will keep the seller from throwing away something that would be totally useful for you.
When all the other things are equal, choose the non-plastic product, like a cotton shirt over a polyester shirt, or a wooden spatula over a plastic one.
Choose high quality products. Even if it is plastic, high quality lasts longer in use than low quality.

What advice do you have for reducing the amount of plastic garbage?

Why do you use Facebook?

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:55:10 +0300

If you use Facebook, why do you use it and what do you use it for?

I'm a bit sceptical about it because of their "give us your password and we'll import your contacts" feature, and because it seems like MySpace for grownups.

Testing tablet touchscreens

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:41:58 +0300

One can test table touchscreens handily with any app that lets the user draw. Just draw black freehand lines, horizontal or vertical, small distance apart (the smaller the better). If some lines come out dashy or dotted, don't stop, just draw the next one at the same distance as before. If you cannot the line at all, draw the next line as soon as you can, in red. The resulting picture, especially if you do both horizontal and vertical versions, is a pretty handy map of your touchscreen sensitivity problems.

The image here is on a borrowed Nokia N770, which has nearly problemfree touchscreen, though some lines failed.
In the previous log entry you can see results of a vertical freehand line test on a more broken touchscreen.

I'd like to see your test result somewhere. Please add a comment with a link.

Interesting topics, less interesting articles

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 13:29:25 +0300

I subscribe to the ITtoolbox RSS feed. I regularly mark many of their entries interesting as they write a lot about topics that interest me. Unfortunately nearly never the articles are as interesting as their titles. Their articles seem often shallow and way short.

Could someone recommend me a feed with similar topics but more in-depth articles?

Lakimuutos kommentoitavana

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:49:50 +0300

Jos tietosuoja kiinnostaa edes piirun, katsokaa läpi kommenttipyydöt ja ehdotukset tietosuojalain muutoksista koskien tunnistamistietoja (31.8.2007 mennessä) ja yrityssalaisuuksia ja tietoturvaa (15.8.2007 mennessä)

Jos kiinnostaa vaikkapa oluella istuminen ja sen miettiminen miten noita kommentoisi (ilman sitoumusta kommentoida virallisesti ollenkaan), se olisi oikein kiva.

Experimenting with caching

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Tue, 08 May 2007 18:47:45 +0300

I'm experimenting with Serendipity caching plugins. Let me know if you get annoying brokenness, please.

Looking for Open Source music with Stepmania steps

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 22:25:37 +0200

Do you have a band? Would you be willing to make some of your music free (as in Free Software or Open Source)? Could you make Stepmania steps for some of that music? I'd be very grateful.

The thing is, Stepmania is not yet in Debian because there is no game files for it. I'd love to package it but I'm not good at making steps nor a musician.