How Envy blew up xorg

Two days ago I installed Ubuntu 7.04 for the n-th time. I am motivated to add a piece every day until I will reach a good substitute for my Windows PC iMac. (Well, windows vs ubuntu is not a fair match...). The installation worked flawlessly. Yesterday I installed ies4linux, aka Internet Explorer for Linux. Runs perfectly on Ubuntu, and allows to navigate sites IE only even if they use M$ proprietary technologies like asp and ActiveX.

So this evening I wanted to install Beryl. Let's see what's did go wrong. [Note: using Vista@work and to Tiger@home, I could not resist installing a lights and candies GUI for linux: my problem.]

Here I found a command to verify the direct rendering, needed to run Beryl:

$ glxinfo | grep direct

$ direct rendering: No

No direct rendering? I had to update nVidia drivers (I have a nVidia video card, of course). I used Envy, an automatic video driver updater for Linux. Ok, let's try. Blam! xorg doesn't starts anymore. Linux isn't Windows, so I log on in text mode, seep through /etc/X11 and rename xorg.conf to xorg.conf.rtfm, and pick xorg.conf.backup (thanks God it's backup day) to xorg.conf.

$ sudo mv xorg.conf xorg.conf.rtfm

$ sudo mv xorg.conf.backup xorg.conf


$ startx, and everything is gonna be all right. No, the average salesman couldn't perform even such a simple repair, and this would have move him/her far away from Linux at least for 10 years. Alberto, please, add a routine to test if at the next reboot the system is running at the required runlevel.
The dwarf (nano, in Italian) is a tribute to nano, the text editor I used to find the difference between xorg.conf and xorg.conf.backup. The command I typed was

$ sudo nano xorg.conf (incidentally, "sudo nano" means "I sweat, dwarf" in Italian, which is rather funny for a terminal command...)

Nano (text editor) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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CPDL is down?

Testing a new search engine to retrieve free music scores (you can find the link here), I didn't reach to browse on www.cpdl.org, home of the Choral Public Domain Library. I tried with several DNS resolvers, but not to avail. I hope it would be just a temporary down.



And if you have news regarding cpdl, please: let me know.

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How to recover files from a damaged CD/DVD

If you, just like me, have had enough of I/O errors reading your optical media, this post is for you.
This method allows for recovering files from damaged CD/DVD by copying them byte to byte, using the Unix command dd.

WARNING: dd is a very powerful program, and if misused, can literally erase everything on your hard drives. And worst, dd is a no-warning, no-second-think, advanced-users only, Unix-style mean and lean program. See dd entry on Wikipedia for details.

This is the command you should run:
dd if=/Volumes/MY_DYD/File_to_retrieve.ext of=/Users/myuser/myfolder/File_retrieved.ext bs=512 conv=noerror, sync

dd: the command
if: input file
of: output file
bs: bytes size [512 bytes]
conv: conversion options [noerror, don't halt on errors; sync, pad with blanks the block containing the error]

If you specify a bs so small (512), in case of a large bad chunk on the medium you will obtain a lot of error logs. Let it go until you have the prompt again.

This method is expecially useful to recover damaged movies, because unless you have the file 50% corrupted (not very likely even in worst cases), you probably will strip a couple of frames from the movie, and the result will be perfect.
Of course if you are recovering file working as a whole, as a compressed archive or a RDBMS datafile, maybe padding the error with spaces may render useless the resulting file. As usual, YMMV.

dd is available under OSX and Linux (any). If you are running Windows, well, probably you are not an advanced user anyway, so why bother (and no, neither Robocopy nor NtBackup have the same functions of dd). Just in case, you can run dd under Windows via Cygwin. And if you don't know Cygwin, aka Unix shell for Windows, you better read the tutorial on Lifehacker.

dd MAN Page

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Asus announce extra-cheap Notebook

Digging from PCPro, through Engadget and finally thanks to Engadget Chinese, I found some significative picture of the super cheap super light Asus Notebook, sporting a Linux OS (but a WinXP driver set is on its way), 1 to 32 GB SSD. The price tag is announced $ 199; as of today, corresponding to 147,407 EUR, roughly 1 EUR cheaper than Windows Vista Home Basic.



Let's wait for this magic box to be released (August 2007), I want one.



From the pictures you can see some specs (guessed by me):

- Full notebook keyboard

- Touchpad with one (one?) button

- LAN adapter (left side)

- 3 USB ports (1 left + 2 right)

- 1 VGA out (right)

- 1 SD card reader (? what's the little opening in the right side?)

- monitor roughly 9'' wide, 800 x 480.



I definitely want one.



COMPUTEX 2007 動手玩：Asus Eee PC 701 - Engadget 癮科技

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Why you should support Open Source

Briefly: Jamie Cansdale write an add-on for Visual Studio. Microsoft sends him a MVP award to congratulate. Unfortunately, the add-on works on Visual Studio Express Edition too. Someone in Redmond notices the fact, and tries to ask softly, then firmly, then threatens, and finally sends his lawyers to Jaime, to make him remove the Express Edition compatibility from his add-on.



Are you a pay-version user? Ok, you can use the add-on. Are you a miserable free version user? Are you trying to use add-ons? What does Microsoft resembles? A bunch of Open Source Freaks?



The correspondence between M$ and Jamie stretches for a year. Meanwhile, Redmond sends him another MVP award, readily withdrawn (Microsoft: this error put you in the same rank of italian TLC companies - for the record, they are all disgusting).

The deadline given by the M$ lawyers is today, @4PM. Jaime, don't back down. I hope this story will fire back to Microsoft enough for them to understand why Google, after given years, will buy them.



Microsoft threatens its Most Valuable Professional | The Register

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About sexual harassment

Be handsome, be attractive and don't be unattractive.

Sexual harassment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Space and children.

Today I was talking to my son Mario (6 years) about gravity force and I was trying to explain that:

• an apple falls from the tree
  
  
• the Moon turning around the Earth 

share the same cause. Ok, maybe is a little early (never underestimate childrens).



When I finally asked him: "Do you know why the Earth doesn't fall in the Sun?", he politely answered that the colorful ring (see image) is like a rail, thus the Earth and the other planets cannot steer off their guide." :-)

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Space pictures

If you like space pictures the way I do, be sure to check the linked website. I found this nice image of the Moon and Venus in their 10 yrs archive.



Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive

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About women figure

Since when I began to see women as the other half of the sky, I ever wondered why the perfect silhouette of a woman should be dictate by a bunch of gay stylists. I could tell you how skinny TV women gets our daughter anorexic, or why a skinny woman should be less appalling to your genes, because she is less likely to carry your children well.



I know is just a matter of fashion, and thanks to BoingBoing I found the linked advertising of this amazing product.



Boing Boing: Ad from 1934 promises to help you get fatter

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What a difference a screen made...

If you see...







...what I mean.







decio: il blog: Why I will buy a Widescreen monitor.

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Meaningful answers

Do you know the break-even to a happy life are $ 40,000? Do you think you should sue a sexual harasser? What should be the optimal length of a paperless CV?



Read on. Penelope's answer may amaze you.



N.B.: Read the italian version here.



How to Change the World: Ten Questions With Penelope Trunk: Career Guidance for This Century

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Why I will buy a Widescreen monitor.

It's time to buy new monitor(s). Currently I am using two 17'' CRT (one for WinXp and one for Ubuntu), and an astonishing beautiful 20'' wide LCD on my iMac G5. No surprise, usually I work on the iMac. But is time to put into retirement the CRTs.

So I am searching for a 19'' or 20'' LCD monitor, with fast refresh time (less than 8 ms, the faster the better), possibly with Pivot function (which allows to use the monitor in portrait mode).

The pivot function, otherwise useless, is intended to display an A4 paper sheet on screen as big as possible. The best of the pivot monitor is using them with musical notation software (Finale, for example). When you read a full score composed by 20 staves, use the portrait mode could really make the difference.

Ok, you could buy a 30'' LCD and use it in landscape mode to display *two* pages on the screen, but this solution is exceeding my budget.

Finally, I have to choose between 4:3 and 16:10 (normal or wide). Well, my intention is display a full screen A4 sheet. If you display a 297 x 210 mm sheet (the ratio in equal to square root of 2, very roughly 1.4, on a 4:3 monitor (ratio 1.3*) in portrait mode, you will have two resulting vertical bars on both sides of the visible area. Conversely, if you display the same sheet on a widescreen monitor (e.g. 1680 x 1050, with a ratio equal to 1,6**), the resulting bars will be horizontal, where the mainstream OSes (Windows of all kind, Mac OS X, and the most Linux flavors, including Ubuntu, the one I use) find menu, quick launch, info, task bars.

This is why I will buy a widescreen monitor, but here you will find more details.

* And, BTW, periodical numbers have always turned me mad.

** This time is exactly 1,6 or to use a more familiar language 16:10

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DEUTSCHES MISERERE

This poetry by Bertolt Brecht is missing from the Net. Tells about war, and it's worth reading [in German, English and Italian].

Eines schönen Tages befahlen uns unsere Obern
Die kleine Stadt Danzig für sie zu erobern.
Wir sind mit Tanks und Bombern in Polen eingebrochen
Wir eroberten es in drei Wochen.
Gott bewahr uns.

Eines schönen Tages befahlen uns unsere Obern
Norwegen und Frankreich für sie zu erobern
Wir sind in Norwegen und Frankreich eingebrochen
Wir haben alles erobert im zweiten Jahr in fünf Wochen.
Gott bewahr uns.

Eines schönen Tages befahlen uns unsere Obern
Serbien, Griechenland und Russland für sie zu erobern
Wir sind in Serbien, Griechenland und Russland eingefahren
Und kämpfen jetzt um unser nacktes Leben seit zwei langen Jahren.
Gott bewahr uns.

Eines schönen Tages befehlen uns noch unsere Obern
Den Boden der Tiefsee und die Gebirge des Mondes zu erobern
Und es ist schwer schon hier in diesem Russland
Und der Feind stark und der Winter kalt und der Heimweg unbekannt.
Gott bewahr uns und führ uns wieder nach Haus.

[english]
A beautiful day our leaders commanded us
To conquer for their sake the little city of Danzig
We broke in Poland with Tanks and Bombers
We conquer it in three week.
May God save us.

A beautiful day our leaders commanded us
To conquer for their sake Norway and French
We broke in Norway and Franch
We conquer them during the second year in five week.
May God save us.

A beautiful day our leaders commanded us
To conquer for their sake Serbia, Greece and Russia
We did go in Serbia, Greece and Russia
And now we battle for our bare lives since two long years.
May God save us.

A beautiful day our leaders will command us
To conquer the bottom of the oceans and the mountains of the Moon
And it's hard yet here in this Russia
And the enemy strong and the winter cold and the way to home unknown.
May God save us and lead us to home.

[italiano]
Un bel giorno i nostri comandanti ci imposero
Di conquistare per loro la piccola città di Danzica.
Noi facemmo irruzione in Polonia con carriarmati e bombardieri
La conquistammo in tre settimane.
Dio ce ne scampi.

Un bel giorno i nostri comandanti ci imposero
Di conquistare per loro Norvegia e Francia.
Facemmo irruzione in Norvegia e in Francia
Le conquistammo tutte durante il secondo anno in cinque settimane.
Dio ce ne scampi.

Un bel giorno i nostri comandanti ci imposero
Di conquistare per loro Serbia, Grecia e Russia
Noi andammo in Serbia, in Grecia ed in Russia
Ed ora combattiamo per la nostra nuda vita da due lunghi anni.
Dio ce ne scampi.

Un bel giorno i nostri comandanti ci imporranno
Di conquistare il fondo degli oceani e i monti della Luna
Ed è già duro qui in questa Russia
E il nemico implacabile e l'inverno gelido e non sapere la strada per tornare a casa.
Dio ce ne scampi e ci riporti a casa.

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Scott McCloud online free comic

You will find at the following link a comic book by Scott McCloud (the author of Understanding Comics), readable through a very fancy Flash application.



The title is "The Right Number", and is free (found via BoingBoing).



The Right Number

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Firmate la petizione

Questo messaggio è per tutti i cittadini europei: firmate la petizione per introdurre tre emendamenti ad IPRED2, una proposta di legge fatta a livello comunitario per criminalizzare tutte le violazioni di copyright e tutte le contraffazioni che verrà votata mercoledì 25 Aprile 2007.



I tre emendamenti hanno lo scopo di:

• LIMITARE il campo di applicazione di IPRED2 alle imprese criminose, che prevedono pirateria e violazione di marchi registrati su scala commerciale, con dolo e a scopo di lucro, anziché criminalizzare tutte le violazioni di proprietà intellettuale come prevederebbe l'attuale direttiva.
• EVITARE di creare uno stato di criminalizzabilità (senza precedenti) per gli organismi intermediari su Internet, provider, fornitori di software ivi compresa una serie di attività legittime, togliendo le parole "aiutando o assistendo e incitando" [aiding or abetting and inciting] dall'articolo 3.
• FORNIRE DELLE CERTEZZE LEGALI adottando precise ed appropriate definizioni di "su scala commerciale" e "violazione intenzionale" nell'articolo 2, in modo che si intenda con questo le attività commerciali fatte a fine di ottenere lucro che si possa direttamente attribuire all'attività di violazione.
  
  

Fondamentalmente avete quattro possibilità:

1) Firmare a "scatola chiusa"

2) Informarvi qui e qui, poi firmare

3) Informarvi e poi decidere di non firmare

4) Sbattervene le palle e non firmare



Preferirei se sceglieste la 2), in mancanza di tempo la 1), se scegliete la 3) fatemi sapere nei commenti perché non avete firmato, e se scegliete la 4) siete delle bestie, e non so proprio che cosa vi spinga a leggere questo blog.



Firma qui

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Flat Daddies

Coming back from Guy's Blog, I bring this unbelievable thing: Flat Daddies are full-size printed posters of parents who are serving overseas in the military (cited from their website). Really. They use a padded full-size print of the Dad instead of the real one: dining, traveling, sleeping.



Don't laugh. At first I found it ridiculous, then I remembered Vonnegut's words: "...that no one is bad, disgusting, or ridiculous".

And, really, there's nothing to laughing about.



Here you will find an article of a Flat Daddy tester. Her experience is not so bright, but for many other should be quite a relief, based on the success of the idea.

I encourage you to read the original. Let me know in the comment if you would like to read the linked article translated in Italian.



Flat Daddies | free life-size posters of your hero

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Modern Mechanix

The picture above shows a device that traps who (unfortunately) rings the fire alarm. Sure it will reduce the alarm pranksters, expecially because only a policeman or a fireman can free the (barbequed) hand.



I just want you to notice Modern Mechanics, a site full of "wonders" from the past.



Modern Mechanix » Fire Box Traps Pranksters

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Optical illusion

I am an avid reader of pointless and unuseful things. In this group fall definitely optical illusions. I like them very much, and I wonder how after almost two (pointless) years of blogging I never linked one.



So, look below at the magic picture, and look again when you are at least 8 steps away from your monitor (I tried as far as three meters and it worked flawlessly).

The two faces seem to swap themselves. In the comments of the link you will find an explanation.







Blogger Whale||freestyle blogging: Don't trust your eyes!

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Kurt is up in heaven now.

Kurt Vonnegut (american despite the german name) is dead, and this may be a good day to begin reading his books.

I recently read Slaughterhouse 5 (in Italian: "Mattatoio n° 5"). I learnt a new way to think about war. I learnt a new way to think about death.



Farewell, Kurt.



Kurt Vonnegut - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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A personality test (sorry, Mac only)

Mac OS X 10.4, codename Tiger (I know the ladies love it), comes equipped with two games: Marble Blast Gold and Nanosaur II: Hatchling.



The first is one of the most addictive and brain-tickling videogames I ever played; stages are usually short as two minutes, nevertheless you will spend hours (days?) with the little rolling marble. The learning curve is simply right, not too hard nor boring, and the Gold Time limit is challenging even for hardcore gamers. In a word, a Masterpiece.



The second isn't the worst videogames I ever played, but sure is in the bottom 3. I need to rephrase it: it would be one of the worst 3 games I ever played. Nanosaur II isn't a game: is a personality test. Do you know someone who spent more than 10 minutes (globally) on it? Well, maybe you should seeing him/her less. Is boring, is useless, and is a misuse of graphical effects (which are indeed very good). A little too graphical to seem a personality test, but well, today the style is overcoming the substance.



Your daughter wants to date a Mac owner: ask him how much time does he spend on Nanosaur II, and if is more than 10 minutes (in all his life), be warned: something is wrong in him:

i. His QI

ii. He cannot tell videogames and personality tests apart

iii. He parks like an a*****e

iv. All of the above.



/sarcasm



Pangea Software: Nanosaur 2 Home Page

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