Kasperian Moving Parts

kinda like Batman, but with a wife and 3 kids

Tuesday February 12, 2008
by Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper
12 Comments

Wanted: VIM in Eclipse

vi vs. emacsI’ve been looking for a way to have VIM functionality inside Eclipse for a long time. SlickEdit has it, sort of, but it’s prohibitively expensive and ugly. And then I saw this nifty little vimplugin sourceforge project and got my hopes all up. Sadly, it’s not quite there yet. After figuring out how to associate *.cc files to the Vim plugin (note to vimplugin guys: Maybe stick a README or some docs on how to use the plugin in the tarball?), I saw that I was unable to open more than one VIM tab in Eclipse at a time. In addition, there is no contextual/outline view associated to the code once you’re in the VIM editor as there is with the CDT C++ editor.

*sigh*

Back to the drawing board.

Monday February 11, 2008
by Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper
4 Comments

The Demise of a Moleskine (Binding)

The Demise of a MoleskineBehold, The MoleskineOh No’s! My beloved Moleskine has torn itself asunder! Behold, the ripped binding.

For $15, you’d think they’d be a little more resilient than this!

And no, my deluxe custom black duct tape pen holder is not to blame (I don’t think?).

Oh, intrepid fellow Moleskine users: is this kind of senseless violence unprecedented?

[ Update (2008-03-19: ] Moleskine has come through for me and send me a replacement!!

Monday February 4, 2008
by Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper
0 comments

Openbox 3.4.6 and ObConf 2.0.3 released

I ran across this on Planet Gnome…

Openbox 3.4.6 and ObConf 2.0.3 released

Feb 02, 2008 – 12:53 pm EST

Openbox 3.4.6 and ObConf 2.0.3 have been released for mass consumption!

This Openbox release introduces a new look! The Clearlooks theme has been updated to match the latest GTK Clearlooks engine. As well Openbox and ObConf are both sporting shiny new icons.

Wow! That takes me back a ways!! Openbox was a fork started by the supremely-talented Ben Jansens (oh x0r, where have you gone?) and a couple of other talented guys who used to be hardcore blackbox dudes. I had no idea Openbox was still being developed!

Rock on, guys! =:)

Monday February 4, 2008
by Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper
0 comments

Okay, I watched the SuperBowl

Charlie-Joiner---Action-Photograph-C10108443It actually felt pretty good to “unplug”, as it was put in The Matrix, and allow my brain to focus on nothing other than family, video games, and good old-fashioned American football today. I just realized today that I’ve not had an truly restful weekend in about 3 months, what with new job, travelling, trying to sell a house, realtor-ish stuff, miscellaneous stress, etc. So it was a nice break from overwhelming life today.

Since I’ve not watched football (or much of TV at all) since last year’s Charger’s game, we didn’t even know who (other than the Patriots) were playing today. But we decided to root for the underdogs (The Giants), and it was a very exciting game! I won’t ruin it for anyone who hasn’t Tivo’d it yet, but it was very well played–an enjoyable diversion. I include a totally unrelated picture of one of my favorite Chargers from my growing up years of watching football with my Dad… Charlie Joiner.

In other news, I see that the amazing Bertjan has committed a bit to KPilot trunk recently! Way to go Bertjan!! We need to catch up on IRC soon and talk more of world domination!

I guess that’s all for tonight. Need sleep and to get back on a decent schedule again…

Saturday February 2, 2008
by Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper
0 comments

Review Board and KDE!

Ooh, just saw this excerpt from Aaron:

in other news, Matt Rogers has set up a review board installation which i want to start using to streamline the patch review process in plasma. Matt has set up a group for Kopete already, i’ve noticed, too. if all goes well, we’ll find a permanent home for it and maybe even start getting other kde projects using it =)

Awesome! I can tell you from experience that Review Board is one seriously cool tool. Having been the initiator of the code review process at Rite Aid, I would have loved to have had it as an available option, but was stuck using cvs diff, a2ps, reams of paper each week, and large amounts of coffee. I firmly believe in code and peer review and love the results they bring. But doing it without a good tool-set is PAINFUL, and just wears you down. I’m excited to see our KDE guys using such a cool solution!

Friday January 18, 2008
by Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper
0 comments

Memorable Moments/Randomeness From Day One

We Meet At Last!101_4493New shoes!My new Corto Maltese Swatch watch!

Woohoo!

Day one from the KDE Launch Event at Mountain View, CA, and I’m tired, stoked, tired, excited, and… tired. Memorable spots include:

  • Waking up at 3:00 a.m., EST, flying all day, getting stuck in Silicon Valley traffic for 2 hours, etc.
  • Visiting a beautiful, big mall in Santa Clara. My eldest would LOVE this!
  • Walking into an actual Swatch store and buying a new, nifty, unique watch. (I used to wear no watch unless it was a Swatch but haven’t had one in a few years. Love them!)
  • Finding the new version of my old Nike Prestos and buying a pair!
  • Finally getting to meet and talk to Adriaan, after having worked with him for 4+ years.
  • Drinking a sip (a really wee sip) of Adriaan’s scotch (I think).
  • Eating peanut butter cookies that Adriaan made for us all, and drinking milk with my fellow KDE brethren, late into the night.
  • Getting my KDE business cards (2 boxes, mind you!!) (thanks again, Thiago!!!) =:)

Looking forward to more fun at Days 2 and 3 at the KDE4 Launch Event.

Special thanks to Jerry Gartner for the pics, since I sucked too much to actually take any thus far. =:/

Wednesday January 16, 2008
by Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper
0 comments

Return of the Singer

kevinmax200x254p-january2008One artist that I’ve always admired is Kevin Max. I always enjoyed his voice in dc Talk, and though he hasn’t enjoyed the success that TobyMac or Michael Tait, I think he’s every bit as talented. I just found a nice little interview with the man and I must say, I LOVE the new look, Kevin. =:D This is what I’m aiming for… my new look. =;)

Some bits that I totally identify with:

So how would you say life is different from five years ago?

Max: As a 40-year-old, I think it’s a time for me to mellow. The kids keep me on my toes, but I’m really more of a family guy as opposed to a guy who’s always wanting to go out on the town and trying to see what the [newest thing] might be. I enjoy being home now.

…

Your publicist said Michael W. Smith calls you the “most misunderstood man in Christian music.” Is that a compliment?

Max: Probably, if you put me up against the wall with the other contemporary Christian singers. I would say that Michael W. Smith can be quite a misunderstood guy, too. I’m known as the guy that’s kind of on the fringe or the outside—not because I think it’s cool, but because I really believe in creativity and pushing the envelope and progressing in the arts. I don’t like to sit still and put out exactly what people expect me to. I like to push myself to change.

…

Is this a one-off project? Or do you think you might continue in this vein of music for albums to come?

Max: As I’ve tried to explain to so many people that are trying to figure out this little enigmatic head of mine—which is quite small at times—I always like to change. Change is probably my one vice. It kind of confuses and pisses off some people, but I need change. It’s not that I think it’s cool to do that. I just like doing it. The next project is probably going to be another 360-degree turn.

Here’s to change, Kevin. I’m in the middle of a big one, myself, and loving every bit of it. =:)

Friday January 11, 2008
by Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper
1 Comment

KDE4 Just Plain Kicks Butt

KDE 4.0 Released
Okay, seriously, KDE4 is really, really nice. I had been running from svn for the last few months and things tend to get crufty after a while of that… Unless you do a full uninstall and reinstall between weeks, things just kind of get progressively worse. Files get moved, libraries change names, you end up with broken stuff, etc., etc.

So I just started clean and rm -rf’d ~/.kde4, rm -rf’d my local kde4 installation, and used OpenSUSE’s excellent KDE4 repository for all of the KDE4 packages.

WOW! Clean, neat, nice, totally functional, wow, wow, wow! Excellent work, all involved!

And, best of all, we finally got mouse cursor changes to work without having to restart X!!!  Holy COW! I had no idea this was a new feature. I know it sounds a small thing to be excited about, but this is one of those little niggling annoyances (like having to restart Firefox to pick up a new theme) that just irritates ya. But no longer!

I must find who to thank for this and dispense a hug at our Launch Event next week!

Oh, and I forgot to mention… it looks like we don’t have quite all the keybindings available in the keyboard shortcuts configuration screen (minimize, maximize, send window X to desktop Y, etc.), so I am using my previous pet project, bbkeys (remember blackbox, anyone?), to do all of those nifty little keybindings. I can’t tell you how cool it feels to have written software 5+ years ago, not used it in at least 3, and be able to come back to it with pride, watching it being fully functional. Long live Open Source! =:D

bbkeys: ScreenHandler: in findSupportingWM.
bbkeys: ScreenHandler: first readSupportingWMCheck succeeded.
bbkeys: ScreenHandler: second readSupportingWMCheck worked.
bbkeys: ScreenHandler: Found compatible window manager: [KWin] for screen: [0].
bbkeys: ScreenHandler: Supported atoms: [65].