Reflection Design

Spam ;)

Okay so from i started using Akismet to catch comment spam the following number of spam messages have been deleted before being posted.

 Akismet has caught 42,300 spam for you since you first installed it.

Just think its funny that even a minor blog like my own will get this many spam messages. Luckily for me Akismet catches them all and i never get a single one of them posted here

The hosting change is done

Title says it all.. i will be posting more later on today i think.

Hosting change

Okay the site may be down a couple of days from now.

I have been neglecting the blog for some good reasons that i will ellaborate upon when i finished my hosting change. Basically my current hosting solution doesnt provide me with the features i need behind the scenes of the blog.

Also i have some stuff that will bring the activity on RD back again. Mostly i will be bloggin offline on my laptop most everyday, and make sure to make at least a weekly update on RD to keep it going. Mostly i guess it will become more of a personal blog since i dont find much time to paint at the moment. Entering my final ½ year of university so its kinda important

Stay tuned for a new host soon

Another year past…

Its come to be that time of the year once again. The blue orb has rounded the big bright star yet another time, and Swoop got another year older.
The big 2 5 ... wow. Kinda itches a little. But by some miracle i can still get out of bed (barely) without making the *uuumph* sound of old people getting up. My eye sight was still able to focus on the tv screen. I didn't hit any extra walls or doors on my way to work, and i managed to still find the correct bus there.

So what does this all mean ? Well not alot... from 1½ weeks from now i should be able to pick up the pace on this website again. Been luying dormant for a while now for personal reasons. Wont get into it here, but i will do my best to add some paintings and tutorials.

Im currently writing my own little review of Ubuntu 7.10 now, and so far im really liking it. Everything on my laptop just works out of the box, and only have slight issues with suspend/hibernate now. Its great!

Got to head off to work now since apparently my birthday doesn't provide for a national holliday... yet!

PS: Thanks to everybody who decided to wake me up early this morning to say happy bday. I appriciate it

2 way sync with gcal via thunderbird

Okay im totally psyched about this. Been looking for two way synchronisation with my google calendar for ages now it seems. Every solution has always required me to install complicated (seemed that way) applications and troublesome synching procedures.
I just wanted a simple calendar on my desktop that not only shows my gcal but allows me to upload appointments.

Now the solution is here, and within my favorite e-mail client also. Longstanding calendar pluging for thunderbird "lightning" will allow you to get your google calender to see. And the "provider" pluging will enable you to do two way sync. No further instructions that install both extensions for thunderbird, and the rest is pretty easy.

I got this hot top from the ubuntu forums: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=540330 

Installing Avant Window Navigator (AWN) on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn

Okay since i havent been using my laptop that much lately its become my little testing ground for new cool stuff. Although AWN doesnt qualify for new stuff for me, i decided to give it a whirl to see how far its come since i last visited it.
I figure i will be using it when i feel its stable enough as it provides me with my much needed eye candy desktop, and also is ... well okay it just looks great !

Anyhow lets get started on how to install and compile this little goodie from source.

Step one is of course to find instructions on the website: https://launchpad.net/awn

Before we try and follow the nice directions, i did a little digging (and some error investigating) to find a big list of dependencies that should be installed first. So lets first prep the system and make sure we actually can compile awn.

Satisfying dependencies

Open a terminal and type the following code

sudo apt-get install build-essential automake1.9 autotools-dev libxdamage-dev libxcomposite-dev libgnome2-common libgnome2-dev libgnome-desktop-dev libgnome-vfs-dev libgtk2.0-dev libwnck-dev libgconf2-dev libglib2.0-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libgnomevfs2-0 libgnome-desktop-2 libgnome2-0 libwnck-common python-gtk2 python-gconf bzr gnome-common bzr

This should make sure all your dependencies are ready for the following steps.

2. Now we can checkout and build the application

bzr co http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~awn-core/awn/trunk avant-window-navigator

This checkout the files needed. Then we build them

cd avant-window-navigator
./autogen.sh && make && sudo make install

After the compile process is finished you can start the AWN by typing 'avant-window-navigator' in either your console, or in the run dialog (alt+F2). The 3d setting should also be available.

Thats about it for now. Below are some links of interest for AWN, and for seeking help in the build process

Main Page
AWN Forum
ImportantBuild Topic
AWN Wetpait Page