Olivia's Private Page

GNOME: disable computer/home/wastebasket icons on desktop

Katarzyna Myrek — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:00:31 +0000

A couple days ago I went back to my roots –> Debian with GNOME. I love minimalism and simple desktops, so I decided to turn off any desktop icons. In some distros it is not as easy as you could imagine. There aren’t any switches in preferences. But there is a very easy way to tweak application in GNOME. Open terminal and type:
gconf-editor
now hit enter.

You should see new window. Now go to apps/nautilus/desktop.

Another geektool script

Katarzyna Myrek — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:00:53 +0000

This time I decided to make something smaller. Just the most important messages.

Charging:

On battery:

Geeklet download:

>> systeminfo.glet <<

Apple Brushed Metal Multi – color Refurbished Edition

Katarzyna Myrek — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:43:09 +0000

>> Apple Brushed Metal Multi-color Edition Download <<
Wallpaper pack. Available colors: yellow, orange, pink, red, blue and green.
Resolution: 1400×900

Special thanks for Kano89 [link] who published original black version.

Merge jpgs into pdf with ImageMagic

Katarzyna Myrek — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:18:21 +0000

ImageMagic is a great tool allowing to merge images (it is only one of its many features). Simply to do that execute the command (of course on system with ImageMagic installed):

convert /path/to/image(s) /path/to/outputfile

An example

convert * out.pdf

where * means all files in the current directory

Useful Last.fm tools #1:tag/artist clouds

Katarzyna Myrek — Sun, 02 May 2010 10:28:44 +0000

I have been using last.fm for years now. It is a great website for music lovers (maybe a little commercial, but still useful), and because of API it has a huge collection of add-ons. Of course as anyone is able to make his own tool/add-on there are so many of them, that you simply couldn’t check them all.
I decided to pick the best and present them.

#1: Tag/artists clouds.

With them you can generate your customizable tag/artist cloud. This will produce text output that you can adjust and embed in your last.fm profile or website and a nice image version.

Here are mine:

You can get yours at

http://lastfm.dontdrinkandroot.net

iTunes: Delete song directly from playlist on Windows

Katarzyna Myrek — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:58:09 +0000

iTunes is a great music player. One of it’s most powerful and useful features is Smart Playlists. Thanks to then I can keep my library tidy and clean. But there always must be a disadvantage. Officially you can’t permanently delete from your library a song from playlist. Fortunately, there is an shortcut for this. Simply select file(s) you want to delete and use keys: SHIFT+CTR+DELETE.

Insomnia- don’t let your mac fall asleep!

Katarzyna Myrek — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:02:54 +0000

Since I got another laptop (netbook actually) I spend less time with my mac, but I still need it up and running 24/7.And when I am far away from it I have to close the lid (my cat has some stupid ideas from time to time). Of course when I close the lid MBP goes to sleep, and you can’t change that. It is pretty anoying that Apple didn’t build into the system any tool to disable that feature. Even Windows has it!

But , as always, there is a way to fix the problem. There is a speciall app to prevent your MacBook from sleeping. It is called InsomniaX.

Caffeine- don’t let your Mac dim the display!!!

Katarzyna Myrek — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:27:27 +0000

I have my MacBook up and running 24/7. Usually, when I am away from it I turn off the display, but I am not closing the lid. I also enabled automatic display dimming when computer is not used for 2 minutes. I know it is a short time, but those settings work great for me. Unfortunatelly sometimes when I read for example a long artice auto-dimming display is a bit inconvinient. So I tried to solve my problem in other way than constantly changing settings.

And then I found a small app called Caffeine. It prevents your Mac from dimming display. It is really useful, when you watch youtube or megavideo. It sits in menubar. You can accitwate it by clicking on the icon.

Kindle firmware update 2.3.3 available

Katarzyna Myrek — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:58:01 +0000

I bought my Kindle DX International on February. It was shipped to me with firmware no. 2.3. It was little slow at the time, especially when I uploaded more than 200 books to the device. A couple days ago Amazon released new firmware 2.3.3. The main change is the speed of my Kindle. Now it opens a large pdf much, much more faster. Moreover deleting and indexing book also speed up.

Unfortunatelly, I had to apply update manually. My Kindle didn’t want to update on its own. But it is a really easy process.

Applying Kindle Software Updates Manually

Determine which type of Kindle you have: Go to the Home screen, press the Menu key, and select “Settings.” Look in the bottom right corner of the screen. The version number will correspond to the kind of device:

Kindle (U.S. Wireless) devices begin with: 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3, and 2.0.4.

Kindle (Global Wireless) devices begin with: 2.2, 2.2.1, and 2.2.2.

Kindle DX (U.S. Wireless) devices begin with: 2.1 and 2.1.1.

Kindle DX (Global Wireless): was shipped with our 2.3 series update.

Visit the appropriate link below to download the Kindle 2.3.3 software update file directly to your computer:
Kindle (U.S. Wireless)
Kindle (Global Wireless)
Kindle DX (U.S. Wireless)
Kindle DX (Global Wireless)

Turn your Kindle on and connect it to your computer using the USB cable.

Use your computer’s file browser to copy the update file from your computer to the Kindle root directory. (The root directory contains a number of folders—such as “audibles,” “documents,” and “music”—and is typically denoted by a “device” icon).

Check your file browser’s file transfer progress bar to ensure that file transfer to your Kindle is complete. When you’re confident the file has transferred successfully, you can use your computer’s unmount or eject function to safely disconnect Kindle from your computer.

Disconnect the USB cable from Kindle and your computer.

Go to the Home screen, press the Menu key, and select “Settings.”

Press the Menu key again, and then select “Update Your Kindle.” (This option will be grayed out if the most recent update has already been installed.)

Select “Ok” when prompted if you want to perform an update.

HTC like bar-GeekTool/NerdTool Scripts

Katarzyna Myrek — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:47:17 +0000

I love HTC interface. It is very elegant and efficient. And I decided to make something similar to it on my desk .

And here it is: