Jan 06 2015

Slock 1.2 background colour

In a previous post, I discussed the method for changing the background colour for slock 1.1. Now that slock 1.2 is out, and is in the Portage tree in Gentoo, the ‘savedconfig’ USE flag is a little different than it used to be. In 1.1, the ‘savedconfig’ USE flag would essentially copy the config.mk file to /etc/portage/savedconfig/x11-misc/slock-$version. Now, in slock 1.2, there is still a config file in that location, but it is not just a copy of the config.mk file. Rather, one will see the following two-line file:

# cat /etc/portage/savedconfig/x11-misc/slock-1.2
#define COLOR1 "black"
#define COLOR2 "#005577"

As indicated in the file, you can use either a name for a generic colour (like “black”) or the hex representation for the colour of your choice (see The Color Picker for an easy way to find the hex code for your colours).

There are two things to keep in mind when editing this file:

  • The initial hash (#) is NOT indicating a comment, and MUST remain. If you remove it, slock 1.2 will fail to compile
  • The COLOR1 variable is for the default colour of the background, whilst the COLOR2 variable is for the background colour once one starts typing on a slocked screen

Hope that this information helps for those people using slock (especially within Gentoo Linux).

Cheers,
Zach

Nov 20 2014

Free of earthly burdens

So I was perusing Reddit—an activity that can be nothing more than a way to pass time, or, on occasion, can be rewarding—this evening, and found a picture of a tombstone that a father designed for his differently abled child who passed away untimely.

Free of earthly burdens tombstone for a differently abled child

The picture certainly will resonant with anyone who has a child with a “disability.” The image, though, was not the part of the post that really stuck out to me. No, there was a comment about it that really put the concept of death into perspective:

When your parents or elders die, you feel like you’ve lost a connection to the past. I’ve been told that losing a child is like living through the process of losing the future.

I agree with person who responded by saying that it is a “crushingly profound statement.” The death of a child is not only untimely, but it is a chronological anomaly that simply shouldn’t occur. We as humans recognise items in space and time that are out of place on a regular basis—they catch our attention. For instance, have you ever been watching a film about a time period of long ago and noticed something that wasn’t available at that time (known as an anachronism, by the way)? The loss of a child is arguably the epitome of disturbances in the natural order of time.

For good measure, here is the full thread on Reddit, a link to the particular comment that I referenced, and the image hosted on imgur.

As a side note, the wonderful comment came from a user named Turkeybuzzard, which should be an indication to not pre-judge.

–Zach

Nov 11 2014

Veteran’s Day is one of uncertainty

Today, 11 November, is an interesting holiday in the United States. It is the day in which we honour those individuals who have served in the armed forces and have defended their country. I say that it is an interesting holiday because I am torn on how I feel about the entire concept. On one hand, I am incredibly grateful for those people that have fought to defend the principles and freedoms on which the United States was founded. However, the fight itself is one that I cannot condone.

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people
There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people

Threats to freedom in any nation are brought about by political groups, and should be handled in a political manner. I understand that my viewpoint here is one of pseudoutopian cosmography, but it is one that I hope will become more and more realistic as both time and humanity march onward. The “wars” should be fought by national leaders, and done so via discussion and debate; not by citizens (military or civilian) via guns, bombs, or other weaponry.

I also understand that there will be many people who disagree (in degrees that result in emotions ranging from mild irritation to infuriated hostility) with my viewpoint, and that is completely fine. Again, my dilemma comes from being simultaneously thankful for those individuals who have given their all to defend “freedom” (whatever concept that word may represent) and sorrowful that they were the ones that had to give anything at all. These men and women had to leave their families knowing that they may never return to them; knowing that they may die trying to defend something that shouldn’t be challenged in the first place—human freedoms.

Little boy looking at his veteran father
Who will explain it to him?

Let us not forget a quote by former President of the United States, John F. Kennedy who stated that “mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.”

–Zach