Aug 13 2009

Updates made to the Openbox HOWTO

I have made several changes to the Openbox HOWTO. There were many typographical errors that I didn’t catch the first time around, and package links that weren’t added. Here’s a full list of the updates for version 1.4:

  • In code listing 2.5, changed the $ to # as the operation requires root actions.
  • Added a note to the 2.5 listing about becoming root before the command.
  • In code listing 2.6, fixed the typographical error (7gt; instead of gt;).
  • In code listing 2.6, made the
  • In code listing 2.8, fixed the typographical error (extra > in closing tag).
  • In code listing 2.8, fixed the typographical error (missing closing “).
  • Added a link to the package information for conky before code listing 2.10.
  • Added a link to the package information for feh after code listing 2.10.
  • Added a link to the package information for nitrogen after code listing 2.10.
  • Removed the library dependency bug reference for nitrogen.
  • In terminals section, changed “customized” to “customised” for consistency.
  • In file managers, fixed typographical error for Nautilus (a “bit” heavy).

If you would like to see the new document revisions before it gets committed to the official documentation repository, it is available on my Developer webspace. You may also view the XML for version 1.4 via Gentoo Bug 256693.

|:| Zach |:|

Aug 10 2009

LXappearance and icon themes

After having recently reinstalled Gentoo on my main production machine, I thought I would look into some theming to make things more aesthetically pleasing. I installed a bunch of GTK themes that I ended up not liking, so I got rid of them. I use Openbox with a bunch of LXDE applications installed to ease the process of customisation. One such application is LXappearance. Getting rid of the unwanted themes from the LXappearance menu wasn’t all that difficult. I simply went to /usr/share/themes and removed the respective folders. However, I couldn’t seem to get the unwanted icon themes to go away. If I’m not mistaken, icon themes are usually installed to /usr/share/icons. When I went to manually delete the icon theme folders, however, there were no such directories. Hmmmmmmmm…

Since searching the web didn’t yield any significant results, I thought I would go to the source code and figure out just what happens when one installs an icon theme using LXappearance. In /usr/share/lxappearance there is a script called install-icon-theme.sh, and it contains the following line:

export XDG_DATA_HOME=”$HOME/.local/share”;

That lead me to check that respective directory. Bingo, there were my icon theme folders. I simply deleted the folders, and the respective icon theme choices were no longer present in LXappearance. I was simply excited as it was my first success of the day. 🙂

|:| Zach |:|

Jul 17 2009

Kindness

Today was one of those days where I regain a little bit of faith in the goodness of humanity. Firstly, I went to drop off a package for RMA. When I got to the shipping facility, I realised that I hadn’t sealed the package with packing tape. The guy simply said “no problem, I’ll take care of that.” After thanking him, and right before I left the store, he said “actually this prepaid label doesn’t cover the weight of the package, but don’t worry about it. I’ll just change something really quickly.” That was the first set of niceness that I encountered today.

Secondly, I went to get some bagels from a store I noticed while on the way back to my car. I walked in, placed my order, and then realised how late it was. I said “wow, do you guys stay open later than most of the other locations?” The guy responded with “no, we closed about 15 minutes ago.” Then, to make things even better, he said “we’re just going to throw these cookies away, so would you like to take them?” I thanked him for his generosity, and went about my business.

Though these events may seem small, trivial, or even petty, they helped me see that there are some people that do care about being nice to others. I just hope that I can share the same type of small niceties with others, and maybe these types of behaviours will permeate.

|:| Zach |:|