KDE 4.0.2 Packages For Slackware

March 31, 2008 – 11:04 am

I’ve been so swamp with the upcoming production of Hamlet at pepperdine University that I haven’t seen the updated packages from Robby Workman. So if you are looking for the newest KDE packages go check them out at the usual place found right there. Now I would like to thank him because I spent a bit of time trying to just update the packages from his Slackbuilds file and let me tell you, this takes a lot of time. So Robby, thank you for spending the time to build those. I won’t call myself lazy because I did try and spend half a day on them but …

So go download them and test them out. Let me know how it all works out for you guys.

UPDATE: packages of KDE 4.0.3 for slackware are available at http://kde4.rlworkman.net/

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)

Linux on Delta flights

March 5, 2008 – 5:21 pm

linux

I was wondering what was happening when the little screen went black on my flight from LAX to ATL. It seems they were rebooting the “media” system. To my amazement, I noticed the little penguin dude! It was linux. I took a snapshot with my iPhone. I couldn’t figure out which flavor of linux but, I’m sure it’s very specific for there need. The satellite TV wasn’t working during the flight but you could buy various movies and games. I didn’t buy anything… I use my money for something better then movies and games…

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

KDE 4.0.1 Packages For Slackware

February 13, 2008 – 11:52 pm

Well it’s been two weeks since the point release for KDE4 has been release in the wild. I was wondering when rlworkman (aka slackware package guru) would bring this new version into this world. Well, there you go, he just done it again with a new domain mind you. Without further due, you can find the new packages here. Don’t forget to check the readme. Here is the changelog

Wed Feb 13 17:36:36 UTC 2008
TESTING/kde-4.0.0: Removed. Don’t panic :-) I’ve just pushed kde-4.0.1
packages to a different computer; due to the very high bandwidth usage
here on cardinal last month coupled with the fact that I have a large
amount of unused bandwidth on my 1and1.com account, I decided to host them
there. I did set up a nice subdomain though to make them easy to find:
the new location is http://kde4.rlworkman.net/
Unfortunately, I can no longer offer rsync access to the kde4 packages,
as 1and1 will not allow it to pass through their firewall and will not
make exceptions, it seems.
Be sure to read the updated _README file in the toplevel directory there,
as some of the information has changed. Have fun! –RW

UPDATE: kde 4.0.3 are available at http://kde4.rlworkman.net/

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (3)

Slackware Update

February 1, 2008 – 4:21 pm

New updated packages. It’s kinda bizarre that I get excited about them, moving along.. Most notable update, Alsa is now version 1.0.15. You can check the Alsa Changelog here. Alsa development version is 1.0.16.

Do you smell anything? Hum, do I smell a Slackware point release? …

Thu Jan 31 21:51:05 CST 2008
ap/alsa-utils-1.0.15-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to alsa-utils-1.0.15.
l/alsa-lib-1.0.15-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to alsa-lib-1.0.15.
l/alsa-oss-1.0.15-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to alsa-oss-1.0.15.
x/font-misc-misc-1.0.0-noarch-3.tgz: Removed bogus fonts.alias.
The install scripts will make it. Thanks to Piter Punk.
x/libXmu-1.0.4-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to libXmu-1.0.4.
x/xf86-video-amd-2.7.7.6-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to xf86-video-amd-2.7.7.6.
x/xf86-video-nv-2.1.7-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to xf86-video-nv-2.1.7.
x/xinput-1.3.0-i486-1.tgz: Added xinput-1.3.0.

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

immaculate heart college art department rules

February 1, 2008 – 4:14 pm

Finding those precious things here and there that helps me as I begin my teaching career are quite invaluable. I think the following rules speak for themselves. I will surely pass those along.

This (by Sister Corita Kent) was worth retyping and stealing from here:

  • Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while.
  • General duties of a student: pull everything out of your teacher, pull everything out of your fellow students.
  • General duties of a teacher: pull everything out of your students.
  • Consider everything an experiment.
  • Be self-disciplined. This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.
  • Nothing is a mistake. There is no win and no fail. There is only make.
  • The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.
  • Don’t try to create and analyse at the same time. They’re different processes.
  • Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.
  • “We’re breaking all of the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” - John Cage.

    • Helpful hints: Always be around. Come or go to everything always. Go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully often. Save everything, it might come in handy later.

    There should be new rules next week.

    By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Art | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

    Slackware Update

    January 30, 2008 – 10:24 pm

    Yeah, its the time for some new updated Slackware package. In those the most interesting to me is Amarok which was upgraded to the latest version. I have been using that version of amarok for awhile. I took the new version for a test drive in KDE4 which will be really nice. I’ve since went back to KDE 3.5.8 because I felt more comfortable with that version and it’s a bit more stable then KDE4 on my system. Here is the changelog with a bit of acknowledgement from Patrick V. about him and other Slackware dude attending the KDE4 release party in California.

    Wed Jan 30 19:07:35 CST 2008
    d/ruby-1.8.6_p111-i486-2.tgz: Moved some comments out of the ./configure part
    of the build script to fix a couple of missed options.
    Thanks to Stuart Winter.
    kde/amarok-1.4.8-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to amarok-1.4.8.
    l/atk-1.21.5-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to atk-1.21.5.
    l/gtk+2-2.12.7-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to gtk+-2.12.7.
    l/libmowgli-0.6.0-i486-1.tgz: Added libmowgli-0.6.0, which is needed by
    Audacious.
    l/libmtp-0.2.5-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to libmtp-0.2.5.
    l/libgpod-0.6.0-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to libgpod-0.6.0 (major version bump).
    l/libxml2-2.6.31-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to libxml2-2.6.31.
    l/pango-1.19.3-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to pango-1.19.3.
    xap/audacious-1.4.5-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to audacious-1.4.5.
    xap/audacious-plugins-1.4.4-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to
    audacious-plugins-1.4.4-i486-1.tgz.
    xap/xine-lib-1.1.10-i686-1.tgz: Upgraded to xine-lib-1.1.10.
    extra/slackpkg/slackpkg-2.70-noarch-1.tgz: Upgraded to slackpkg-2.70.
    Thanks to Piter Punk.
    Great thanks are also due to the KDE team, not only for their tremendous
    accomplishments over the years, but for the gracious reception they gave to
    the members of the Slackware team who traveled to the release event. What
    a wonderful group of people! We had a great time there, learned a lot, and
    will be applying that knowledge and our new contacts within KDE to provide
    the best possible KDE experience for Slackware users. The next Slackware
    release will contain KDE 3.5.9, but we’re targeting KDE 4.1.x for the one
    after that. The application end of things doesn’t quite fully cover KDE3’s
    functionality yet, but by then it will. As I’m sure most of you know, Robby
    has put up test packages of the initial KDE 4.0 release which I’ve tested and
    found to be consistent with what to expect from a developer’s preview.
    The look of the new desktop is stunning, and the use of SVG and hardware
    acceleration gives (IMHO) even something like MacOS a run for its money in
    terms of appearance and user-friendliness. We look forward with great
    anticipation to merging KDE4 when it is mature enough (and it’s getting there
    fast), and then watching it just get better and better.
    Once again, _huge_ thanks to our KDE friends! Stop by here any time. :-)

    By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

    KDE4 on NVIDA 1.0-96xx series driver

    January 17, 2008 – 1:38 pm

    Had a couple of problems making KDE4 load on my desktop. At first I though the packages were wrong but after thinking for a second, why would rworkman release something that isn’t working? I doubt that the packages were wrong so I’ve started poking around and check the logs. KWin was the culprit so I though maybe that there was something that wasn’t initialising like it should.

    I’ve also added /etc/profile/qt4.sh and qt4.csh to make sure it loads qt4. It’s basically a copy of qt.sh but with the number 4. ;-) Check this thread for more information about this.

    Apparently, NVIDIA cards on KDE4 is an issue according to various thread on the net so to test it up, I changed the driver in my xorg.conf from nvidia to nv and voila it worked. Something was wrong with my nvidia driver. I poke some more and found a couple of other thread about this issue. Here is what I added to my xorg.conf file.

    Section "Device"
    Driver "nvidia"

    Option "NoLogo" "1"
    Option "RenderAccel" "1"
    Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "1"
    Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "1"
    EndSection

    I also had to rebuild my nvidia driver for some reason the GLX wouldn’t load. After that I’ve rebuilt against the kernel I am running, it worked flawlessly. Cool!

    By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

    KDE 4.0 on Slackware

    January 16, 2008 – 10:16 pm

    KDE 4.0

    Finally someone took the time to build packages of KDE 4.0 for Slackware. I didn’t moan about it but deep down, I was secretly asking to get some of those sexy KDE 4.0 packages. You will have to thank rworkman for all the prep work and here is what he says in the README. I just didn’t want to build them one by one, call me lazy. ;-)

    Tue Jan 15 17:06:38 UTC 2008
    TESTING/kde-4.0.0: Added. Yeah, everybody’s been clamoring for this, so here
    you are. All of this still undergoing heavy testing from several members
    of the Slackware team, and Pat’s planning to push some more “official”
    packages after returning from the KDE4 Release Event. In the meantime,
    this should satisfy your curiosity. ;-)

    Be sure to read the “_README” file in the TESTING/kde-4.0.0/ directory.
    Among other things mentioned in that file, make sure you understand that
    these packages can NOT be installed alongside -current’s existing qt and
    kde packages. Enjoy! -rworkman

    Here is the link.

    Thank you rworkman!

    UPDATE: packages of KDE 4.0.3 for slackware are available at http://kde4.rlworkman.net/

    By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , | Comments (0)

    Alpine Messaging System, the alternative to Pine. Gmail Included.

    December 22, 2007 – 2:51 pm

    Alpine

    I just tried Alpine the email program from Washington University. Alpine is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0. All of the source needed to build Unix, Windows, and Web-based mail user agents is included. Alpine was developed by the department of Computing & Communications at the University of Washington. It’s as if it was based on Pine. Duh! It is. It is similar to Pine and it’s very easy to use. I didn’t notice any difference in the way I use it which is to say I like to use alpine for my gmail account. Here is what I’ve done. I got the source from the Washington website located here. I then compiled it with the normal configuration like so

    ./configure --prefix=/usr --localstatedir=/var --sysconfdir=/etc --disable-debug

    make

    and the final

    make install

    I’m running slackware-current as my linux distro of choice and because I have such an audience, I know that it will use all of my alloted bandwidth on westhost.com. Right?! I have produced a package with checkinstall. It it available here for your pleasure and laziness.

    alpine-1.00-i386-1.tgz

    I also configured it to check my gmail account. The way to do that is very simple. Let me take you through the steps.

    1. Type MSLA (Main> Setup> collectionLists> Add)

    2. Enter something like the following but replacing the information with your gmail account

    Nickname : Gmail
    Server : imap.gmail.com/ssl/user=id@gmail.com
    Path :
    View :

    3. Let’s setup SMTP to use the gmail server. You will be able to send email from you gmail account which is very useful if you have a hostname that doesn’t resolve to your computer.

    SMTP Server (for sending) = smtp.gmail.com:587/tls/user=id@gmail.com

    4. I like using alpine configuration that comes out of the box. I only modified two more setting.

    [X] save-will-not-delete

    pruning-rule =
    (*) don’t rename, don’t delete

    You can setup alpine to use a password file which could contain your gmail password but I do not recommend this as it not safe and usually not recommended. If you do want to use a password file you can go read some more here about it.

    That’s it. You should be able to run Alpine with your gmail account. Nice eh? If you want to setup more advance stuff like setting up two imap account and so on, check out ii.com. It is a tremendous information source.

    By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (12)

    Bartered Bride “White” Model

    December 12, 2007 – 7:15 pm

    Here is what I have been working on for the last couple of weeks. We are producing Bartered Bride at Pepperdine University in the Spring 2008 semester. This opera will be directed by Henry Price and conducted by Tony Cason. I am doing the scenic design.

    For background information about Bartered Bride you can visit the wikipedia article here. The most interesting aspect of the opera for me is that it’s set in the time of a festival from morning to evening. The implication is that it should be set in a happy environment almost like a spring festival. I have conducted a very interesting visual research which I will take a photograph of and talk a bit more about it but until then, here are some of “white” model shot that I am/was working on. The white model is for the scenic designer to get a feel for scenery and to communicate his vision to other fellow artists. In my case, it’s not a white model but it is mostly white. The idea is that I can change it easily at any time. The next step is to add another layer on top of it with either paint or re-do some of the elements in a more “finish” state. Here is act one.

    Bartered Bride - ACT 1

    Act 1 is mostly played outside in fron of the tavern. I wanted the scene to be as happy as possible so that it is very lighthearted and happy. It is mostly characterized by a sea of sunflowers in the background working against the outside of the tavern which is represented here by The Wall. The floor is another representation of a sunflower, in this example, the color.

    Bartered Bride - ACT 2

    Act 2 is inside the tavern so expect lot’s of table, chairs and mugs. The Wall will be somewhat different then what is shown here but it’s possible to communicate the “feel” for this act. It should still be happy and uplifting in every way possible.

    Bartered Bride - ACT 3

    Act 3 is all about the circus passing in town. The scene is set for dance and acrobat which will be cool to have fun with. I wanted to clear the space as much as possible to have an open space for dancing, etc.. The platform are there to be able to have different layer of bodies on stage to be able to fill the space as much as possible.

    Disclaimer: The model is not what some NYU kids could do in terms of model building skills, I am after all, from CalArts.

    By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Theatre | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)