Category Archives: Linux

Ubuntu 11.04 Unity Gets in the Way of the User

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Lex

Ubuntu has released a new version (11.04) of its Linux operating system. Instead of going with Gnome 3, it went with Unity as the default desktop environment. I’ve now used both Unity and Gnome 3, and it continues to confuse … Continue reading →

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Styling Emacs Scrollbar in Ubuntu

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Lex

Emacs uses GTK by default in Ubuntu. In your ~/.emacs file, there should be no (scroll-bar-mode nil). Then add the following to ~/.gtkrc-2.0 style “contrast”    { GtkScrollbar::has_forward_stepper  = 0 GtkScrollbar::has_backward_stepper = 0 bg[NORMAL]   = “red” bg[PRELIGHT] = “dark red” bg[ACTIVE] = … Continue reading →

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Bash Script to Determine Terrorist Threat Level

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Lex

I’ve really been immersing myself into the world of Bash scripting lately. There is an incredible amount of productivity-increasing scripts available online, and I have already written several of my own that make my programming life just a little easier. That … Continue reading →

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Flatten Directory Structure in Linux

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Lex

Move all the files with extension pdf in the directory tree starting at the current location as root to directory bla. find . -type f -name “*.pdf” -exec mv {} bla \; So for example it would find ./path/to/image/lex.pdf and … Continue reading →

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Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Lex

I’ve learned some critical mass of useful shortcuts recently that I’d like to share. I’ll continuously grow this post (for posterity) as I learn more. Please send me useful (non-obvious) shortcuts if you know of any. Alt-F10 – maximize/minimize window … Continue reading →

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GCC Stack: Colorgcc, CCache, Distcc

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Lex

For prettifying and speeding up the compilation of your C++ on Linux with GCC it’s relatively common practice to use colorgcc, ccache, and distcc. This page describes the quick couple steps it takes to set up a “gcc stack” that … Continue reading →

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Executable Files in SVN

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Lex

Another thing that shouldn’t have taken me so long to find out about… set executable permissions on a file under subversion (SVN): svn propset svn:executable ON filename As this page states: When you want to make a versioned file executable, … Continue reading →

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Perl 6 Release Date

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Lex

Rivaling its infamous vaporware comrade Duke Nukem Forever, Perl 6 has been announced by Perl creator Larry Wall to be out “by Christmas” for over 10 years. If you still had doubts about the existence of Santa Claus, this should … Continue reading →

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Ode to Emacs

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Lex

Source: XKCD’s tribute to emacs In a world of beautiful, powerful IDE‘s for programming in C++, Java, PHP, Perl, LaTeX, etc, I still use Emacs. For those that don’t know, Emacs is a editor which God used to program the Universe. … Continue reading →

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The Future of Qt under Nokia and Microsoft

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Lex

Nokia’s Symbian operating system was until very recently the leader in the cellphone market. However, the world started moving away from basic phones over to smartphones where Apple and Google dominate with their mobile operating systems. So Nokia is panicking, … Continue reading →

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