gui:config 1.1
This is version 1.1 of my Firefox extension gui:config. It provides a user interface for many options that are not part of the Option dialog in Firefox.
This release includes several new options, Czech locales and some bug fixes. In addition this version adds a menu entry for the new App menu introduced in the upcoming Firefox 4 (Windows 7 only).
For more information go to http://guiconfig.freedig.org
Last.fm Badges are back online
Finally after quite some time I finished work on the “Last.fm Badges” website and it’s back online.
The badges were unfortunately deleted in March. This means everybody who already had a badge has to create a new one at http://lastfm.freedig.org.
At the moment badges are limited to a maximum of 50007000.
Installing Ubuntu 9.04
Yesterday I finally was able to install the new Ubuntu 9.04 „Jaunty Jackalope“ using the Update Manager. I’m usually a bit suspicious about new releases of Ubuntu since I always had problems that kept me busy for at least some days. This time, however, I especially looked forward to a faster boot up, because Ubuntu 8.10 booted terribly slowly on my laptop most of the time. So, despite all my fears of a weekend of googling for stuff that stopped working I decided to update to 9.04.
The update itself went well, but as expected, I experienced several issues after starting up my new Ubuntu system. So I decided to make a list of all the things that hassle me at the moment. Some problems were easy to solve, for others I have yet to find a good solution.
1. ATI graphics drivers
Bad news for users of older ATI graphic cards. Several ATI Radeon™ graphic cards were moved to a legacy driver support structure in the new version of the proprietary driver for Linux (Catalyst 9.4). Visit this page at amd.com for more information.
The real problem about this is that the version 9.3 which does support these cards is not compatible with X server 1.6 which is included in the new Ubuntu release. Hopefully AMD will come up with a version that supports older cards and work with X server 1.6. Till then I have to use the Open-source driver radeon.
With the radeon driver I was not able to start Compiz. It keeps saying “No whitelisted driver found”. The good part is that Ubuntu feels much faster without all the eye-candy, I do miss my desktop cube though.
2. Mounting a Sansa Media Player
My Sansa e260 would not mount when plugged in using MSC mode, but I found a good description how to resolve this issue.
3. Tracker index corrupted
Today this dialog suddenly appeared, saying that the Tracker index is corrupted.
OK and Cancel didn’t do anything. The dialog simply reappeared. “Reindex all contents” seemed to cause the Tracker daemon to freeze. There already is a bug filed and an entry in the Jaunty release notes.
This is how I was able to fix this:
- Open a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal)
- Install the package ‘tracker-utils’
$ sudo apt-get install tracker-utils
- Use this command to kill all running Tracker processes and remove all databases
$ tracker-processes -r - And finally restart Tracker daemon and the Tracker applet
$ /usr/lib/tracker/trackerd & tracker-applet & exit
4. VLC: Video is not integrated into the interface
When playing videos in VLC the video is displayed in an own window instead of being integrated into the interface. This feature was apparently disabled because it caused VLC to crash on some systems. You can either use version 0.9.3 or wait until 1.0 is released and in the Jaunty repositories. (Threads in the VideoLAN Forums: [1] [2])
03.13.09Update for lastfm.freedig.org
I just updated the code for my website lastfm.freedig.org. From now on users will be able to create up to 30000 badges which is a huge improvement over the old limit with 6000 badges.
This is possible thanks to qssl, a last.fm user, who offered to use some of his webspace for the badges.
There is probably one disadvantage. The images will load a little slower than they used to. At the moment it also seems as if the badges don’t show up all the time. I will see what I can do about those problems.
12.10.08An updating replytracker for Last.fm
I wrote a new greasemonky script for Last.fm which is useful for people who use the discussion forums in their groups a lot. My script displays the reply tracker you usually find at http://www.last.fm/user/*username*/replytracker on your profile page.
Configuration
After you have installed the script you don’t need to configure anything, but you can change the appearance of the reply tracker. Just click “Settings” next to “Reply Tracker” and several options appear.
After you have installed the script you will see three textfields in the right column. Fill in your username, the highest number of rows that should be displayed and the seconds the reply tracker waits before reloading.
Spam a thread
If you want to remove a thread from the reply tracker at all you can “spam” a thread. Simply hover over an entry, click on the little button which appears and the thread will be gone.
If you want a thread to be displayed again just click “Settings” and set “Show spammed threads” to yes. After you have clicked “Save Options” all threads you spammed will be displayed and you can unspam a thread by clicking on the little green button which appears when you hover a thread.
Why you can't create a badge at lastfm.freedig.org
After receiving more and more questions why lastfm.freedig.org doesn’t work, I will explain what this “This service is currently disabled.” message is all about.
Also read Update for lastfm.freedig.org.
I have my website(s) stored on a shared server with 1GB space. At the moment the badges use about 600MB of this space. As I also have other stuff saved on this server I had to limit the number of badge-registrations to 6250 6000 30000.
If the page says “This service is currently disabled. Please check back later.” that means that currently there are more than 6250 6000 30000 badges.
Badges that haven’t been used for 2 months are deleted every hour. Once the number of badges drops below 6250 6000 30000 you will be able to create new badges.
Submit Pandora tracks to Last.fm
On my search for a way to submit songs I listen to at pandora.com to my Last.fm – Account I came across two Firefox extensions.
The first one is Harmoy (1.0). It has been a nominee for the Extend Firefox 3 contest and not only supports pandora.com but virtually every player that is supported by FoxyTunes. In addition it provides information about currently playing songs.
The other one is LastFM Firefox Extension. This extension focuses on song submission from your Pandora radio. Optional messages notify you when Pandora plays a new song and when it is submitted to Last.fm.
07.17.08Userscript for last.fm
Just a few minutes ago I finished my first userscript for Greasemonkey that might be useful for other people too. In case you don’t know what Greasemonkey is, visit the website if you don’t want to miss a great extension for Mozilla Firefox.
This userscript changes the appearance of a last.fm profile page. It replaces the player on the right with the user information in the middle. At least for me this seems to be a better use of space since I don’t use the player anyway.
Before
After
gui:config 0.3.7
Changelog
- Some new options
- New look
- Instant apply possible
Screenshot
for further details please view this page.
05.13.08gui:config 0.3.6
Changelog
- Toolbar button to access the advanced preferences.
- Fixes bug with the menu item on MacOS.
Screenshot
for further details please view this page.
