Ubuntu 11.10: a general improvement

So I’ve been using Ubuntu 11.10 for a couple of weeks now, and the general feeling is that is a lot better polished than Ubuntu 11.04. Unity has come a long way, and I can honestly say that this version is almost useable. In my work desktop, my default desktop environment is now Unity-2D, simply because it runs a lot smoother than the 3D counterpart.

Don’t get me wrong, I still miss Gnome 2. But at least now I can pass the mourning of not having it available anymore and actually use the computer.

The only problem at the moment is this damn bug, that forces me to unount a usb drive from a terminal. I sure hope it get’s fixed soon.

Yet more Ubuntu 11.04 complaining

Sorry, this is another post complaining about Ubuntu 11.04. This time a bug that bothers me a lot… Qt applications with a 1px icon in the notification bar. Really annoying. I personally use only two Qt applications constantly: Skype and Last.fm Scrobbler, and both applications rely heavly on the notification bar icons. So it’s really annoying having them minimized to a 1px icon. Huge fail indeed.

One alternative, suggested by Nuno Dantas, was to drop Gnome entirely and switch to XFce. I tried it but think it’s not really my cup o tea, perhaps when Gnome 2 is completely dropped from Ubuntu I’ll switch to XFce.

Another option was to find alternative applications in GTK+. So that’s what I did. For Skype, the simplest alternative was installing and activating the Pidgin Skype plugin. It still needs to have Skype running, but now I don’t care if the app has a 1px icon, because I can control it from Pidgin. For Last.fm I’m now using Vagalume, a GTK+ Last.fm Player. It has all the features of the official player, is GTK+ based, and even works with libnotify, something that the official player doesn’t support.

So, for the time being, I’m a happy camper… But Ubuntu 11.04 has to be the crappiest release to date…

My new Book Blog

With the new year, came the usual New Year Resolutions. One of them I’ve already put into motion, which is blog at least once a week.

Another one is to read more. I’ve signed up for he GoodReads 2011 Reading Challenge and set myself to read 30 books this year. I though of setting the bar a little higher but then I though, small steps…

For this purpose, I’ve created a new blog, specifically for Book Reviews, called Reliant Bookwork. I took this idea from my sister, which also has a Book Reviews Blog called Sleepless Bookworm, with already a batch of interesting content. My GoodReads account is connected to the blog, so every time I write a review on GoodReads, it gets posted to that blog.

So let the reading year begin, and happy reading to myself!!

2010: a personal review

So, a full week has passed since the end of 2010. So it’s time for a personal review of the last year…

Personally, it was a somewhat good year. I changed my position at CICA, becoming a Systems Administrator at UAS, responsible for everything from Email to LDAP. I also became a permanent worker at FEUP, with a contract of indefinite duration. In the current times, that not that bad. I also (finally) got my driver’s licence is May, so you should be careful when you’re on the road!

Got to visit a new country in October, Ireland, and revisit an already visited one in December, The Netherlands. Amsterdam in the Winter is somewhat magical, as the photos and videos I took can show you…

Gadget-wise, it was also a good year. I bought my current phone, the Google Nexus One, and got offered a Kindle 3 for my birthday. Let’s just say that because of this last one, I’ve been reading like crazy…

So, overall, 2010 was a good year. Let’s see what 2011 will bring…

New Year’s Resolution

So here I am preempting a New Year’s Resolution of mine for 2011. Rebooting this blog for the third time… Since this time I’ve made it into a Resolution I believe I’m going to be able to keep it up…

I’ll try make a new post once a week… So… Happy New Year, and let’s see how this goes…

Google Nexus One

So I’ve recently bought a Google Nexus One. It’s a nice upgrade from my other Android phone, the HTC Magic. So far I’m loving it. The 3.5mm jack is a Godsend!!

Will post a more detailed review soon. And perhaps even root it!

Here are some photos of the unboxing.

And we’re back… Again…

I’m back to this blog. Let’s see how long it lasts this time. On a sidenote this is my first post using the official WordPress Android App. More to follow soon…

Vacation

Finally, the full week of vacations in a long, long time… Most of the projects I’m working are set in motion, with particular attention to FEUP’s Linux Project.

So since I’m not going anywhere this week, what will I do? Well, I still have some achivements of Left4Dead to complete, and have to start paying more attention to Team Fortress 2.

On another note, how cool was this? Pretty amazing…

FAIL

I use Last.fm on a daily basis. What I use most are the radio features. Wether I’m listening to My Library or My Recommendations, it’s what gets me through the day.

Today they announced that starting on Monday the radio streaming service will become a premium service, with a monthly subscription of € 3. That’s actually not much and if I get all the other features a premium user has, it’s actually a nice deal. What really tickles me about the announcement is that the US, UK and Germany will continue to have a free radio service. Why? So far in all the comment responses, Last.fm officials haven’t come up with a plausible explanation.

I sincerely think Last.fm is going to loose a majority of its userbase. I still haven’t decided what to do. Everyone in the comments have been pointing out Spotify as an alternative, but from the look of the site, I don’t know if it’s available in Portugal or not, and apparently it doesn’t have an official Linux client.

Does anyone know of a good alternative to Last.fm so I can make a decision ’till Monday?

Khan died

Ricardo Montalban, “Khan” in what is for me one of the best Star Trek movies yet, died yesterday at the age of 88. He will be missed…