Single user server with lighttpd
On Linux, a web server is usually installed and run in the background as a system service, but you can run one as a normal user too. There are a few reasons why you may want to do this. If you only need to run a server occasionally to test some code, then keeping the server running in the background all the time is a bit overkill. Also, if the code you want to test resides in an encrypted directory, programs running with a UID different from the user who mounted the directory may not be able to access the files.
My new meanGreen Conky config
I recently got tired of my desktop being a huge, lifeless, utilitarian box with nothing to look at other than wallpaper that never changes (until I change it that is). I decided to do something about it, and what I thought would only take ten minutes of me time blew up into a full day of scripting, restarting, and arranging. Once again, I had been bitten by the Conky Config Bug.
Getting Tiny with Tiny Core 4.7.7
There are several mini distributions out there, but Tiny Core stands out as the only one (in my opinion) that tries to provide a just works experience while offering a high level of customization. The goal of the project is to create a tiny nomadic OS that can boot from practically any storage device (flash drives, hard drives, CDs, etc.). Weighing in at around 12MB for the Xvesa version, it looks like they have succeeded. The project was founded by Robert Shingledecker, whom you may remember from Damn Small Linux.
Google claims ownership of your package manager!
I thought it would be fun to add a new feature to the site called Tech Swifties. These are short-form posts about little tech-related things I notice on the web or in real life that are funny, odd, or just plain WTF moments. This first one comes from Google, who apparently believes that they either own the package manager for your distribution, or that packages are supposed to be executable programs.
Text or graphics? Buttons on an HTML5 canvas
It is fairly easy to draw text and graphics to the screen with the HTML5 <canvas> element, but which is best for making buttons or links? Today, I will go over the pros and cons of each approach and how they affect collision detection.
BlazeBlogger-mod officially uploaded, an update on VECTOR
I finally decided to upload my modified version of BlazeBlogger to GitHub. For now, I’m just calling it BlazeBlogger-mod. Please note that it’s not a complete fork, just the scripts I modified. To use them, backup the scripts from the official package and drop in the modified versions. I had to modify BlazeBlogger so that it would generate valid HTML5 documents, as the canvas tag is apparently not supported in the XHTML 1.0 Strict specification (won’t validate).
Easy GPG encryption for msmtp and OfflineIMAP
Msmtp, and OfflineIMAP make a great and speedy combination for sending and retrieving mail, and you always have an offline copy of your messages. Just about the only major problem is that everything is in plain text, including passwords. If you don’t specify your account passwords in the config files, then you have to enter them for each account every time the programs run. If you use e-mail a lot, than this can be a real pain. Let’s do something about that.
VECTOR engine half finished!
Most of the major components for VECTOR are now working! This includes collision detection, object spawning, and scoring. Keep in mind that the game is still far from finished, but right now, it is playable. You can find the repo on GitHub (button in the sidebar). I encourage everyone to check it out and let me know what you think. An official VECTOR site section is on the way too.
Changing my nick and installing Trisquel 6.0
This month, I decided to change my online nick to TuxRag3r, and I have been busy bouncing from site to site, editing profile information, user names, posts, pages, and other things manually to reflect this change. Unfortunately, there really is no such thing as a global name change on the Internet. I also threw out CrunchBang and replaced it with Trisquel 6.0 and full disk encryption.
Extending BlazeBlogger with custom post footers
Thanks to Jaromir Hradilek’s comments in the blaze-config and blaze-make utilities, I finally managed to add a new feature to BlazeBlogger: custom post footer code!. It is now possible to specify an append file, the contents of which will be added to the bottom of every post. That means you can now add code for Disqus, share buttons, a custom comment form, or just a simple footer.
