Lowfat (+ Manager)

This program today is likewise an eyecandy program. It still doesn’t need compositing, though. I have absolutely no idea if compositing would help or hinder this.

Lowfat is a photo program for Linux that is like BumpTop, but just displays photo in a 2.5D-ish fashion:

It’s pretty awesome, but the caveat is that it doesn’t link to any photo management program. Until now.

And up until now I haven’t published any of my programs on here, and that’s because all my programs, other than this one, of course, sucks.

Presenting the Lowfat Manager. It’s a little Ruby-Gnome program that links up with F-Spot, Ubuntu’s default photo manager, configures Lowfat for you, and also gives you 3 preset formations:

Oh, if you want to wirte your own program, look in “state.txt” in the root of Lowfat’s directories. Each photo is as:
Photo Pathname
Center X (NOT TOP LEFT! THE CENTER!)
Center Y
Angle in degrees, clockwise from positive X axis
Width
Height

Two things before we go on to installation:

1) Lowfat Manager actually puts a limit on the size of your photo, because it doesn’t want extremely huge images. I’ll present two options, one for people who shoot extremely large photos, and another for people who shoot extremely large photos and don’t give a damn.
2) Lowfat can only handle RGB photos, which is pretty much every image except some that might be on the web. If you want to find out, open the photo with Gimp, and go to “Image” -> “Mode”, and select “RGB” if it isn’t already.

Installation:

Step 1: Get the packages:

sudo apt-get install build-essentials git git-core libglib-dev libgtk-dev libcairo-dev libsdl1.2-dev libgl1-mesa-dev \ # for lowfat
ruby1.8 libgnome2-ruby libsqlite3-ruby librmagick-ruby #for lowfat manager

Step 2: Get Lowfat:

git clone git://people.freedesktop.org/~macslow/lowfat

Step 3: Build It:

cd lowfat
./configure && make #no make install

Step 4: Copy lowfatmanager.rb to the directory “lowfat”!

lowfatmanger.rb has to be in the directory lowfat is in. If you don’t know what I mean, it should at ~/lowfat (”lowfat” at home directory). If you know what I mean, you should be able to find it =D.

Copy either of the code at these links:
Forces resize.
Doesn’t force resize.

Step 5: Put photos and add them to tags/albums if you hadn’t already. Should be easy enough
Step 6: Give lowfatmanager.rb executive permission (in Ubuntu/Gnome/Nautilus, right-click, “Properties”->”Permissions”->”Allow executive permission”, or something like that)
Step 7: Fire it up!

SimDock

There’s lots of dock programs out there for Linux, but there’s one that is unbeatable in speed, power, beauty, and overall awesomeness. And that is SimDock.

This little program doesn’t require compositing, and is not just a launcher bar, it’s a full-blown dock that you can use as in place of the window list applet in your panel (although I don’t know what you want to fill it with), or in OpenBox/FluxBox. And it intelligently uses Xrandr to stop windows from blocking it.

There are some bugs, though. Occasionally it crashes, and it doesn’t appear in all workspaces. The most severe bug, though, at least on my computer, is that it doesn’t detect when windows are closed, leaving the dock rather littered.

That said, it’s still very cool. If you’re using the Ubuntu Hardy Heron Beta, just install the package “simdock” via Synaptic or your favorite package program. Otherwise, go here. HOWEVER, if you’re using Ubuntu Gutsy, opt for the .tar.gz source archive, because no available package is out there for Gutsy that doesn’t require some hack, because of the dependencies the package uses…

1) Install dev packages:
sudo apt-get install build-essentials libwnck-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libgconf-dev liborbit2-dev libgnome-dev libimlib2-dev
I think that’s all the packages you need, I’m not too terribly sure…
2) Unpack the archive. Because the archive is a svn snapshot, it extracts to “trunk”. Go in there, and give it the old:
./configure && make && sudo make install

To run, just type “simdock” in Terminal/<Alt-F2>

Overall, this is THE best dock program out there for speed, simplicity, and beauty - you can change the skin, but I haven’t found the need to yet. When they finally fix the aforementioned bugs, I’ll be the first one to try it out!

File System Preferences

This is one of those programs that can be controversial, either as a must-have or a bane of evil all users (Sorry, playing Zelda…).

This program is Joel Bryan’s File System Preferences. It’s not a program per se, but rather a script.

Now, if you had used Mac OSX before as a Unix veteran, you might have noticed the strange filesystem (not the HFS+, I’m talking about the structure). Instead of “/usr”, you have “/Library”.

With this program you can make that a reality…In Nautilus only. That is, those strange directories are still there, just covered up in Nautilus. This a great boon for newbies everywhere =D.

To install, just click on the link on “The software is available here.”. Double-click the deb in Debian/Ubuntu, alien it in other distros.

To run, go to “System” -> “Administration” -> “File System Preferences” or run “filesystem-settings” in the Terminal/<Alt-F2>. Select your mode =).

Intro + Wii Remote Driver: XWii

Hi…I’m gonna skip the intro. Just go click “About” on the right there.

XWii

The Wii Remote is amazing, but did you know that it is a Bluetooth device? That’s right, any bluetooth-enabled computer can use a Wii remote,with or without a Wii (the Wii might steal your signal though, so I don’t recommend that).

Now, before you rush out to Fry’s, how about compiling the driver first? But, if you’re a Ubuntu user and search for “Wii Remote Driver”, you’ll most likely find “libcwiid0″, “wminput”, “wmgui”, etc. The problem with these, though, is that they require superuser permission (run as admin). I recommend you use a different driver.

Introducing XWii. It’s a Wiimote driver that runs completely doesn’t use “sudo” or “su”. To setup:

1) Download and unpack archive.
2) Open a terminal, and “cd” into the directory you unpacked the source into
3) Copy, paste, and run:
sudo apt-get -y --force-yes install libbluetooth-dev libxtst-dev libsdl1.2-dev libgl1-mesa-dev && make

Ok, now you can rush to Fry’s to get a Bluetooth dongle, and 2 Wiimotes, and also go to Radioshack to buy an IR (infrared) LED. Don’t contradict me, just go!

Anyways, to launch XWii, enter ./xwii something in the XWii directory. something can be one of the files in the profiles folder, like “profiles/nunchuck_n64.xwii” for a mapping to N64 controls (*cough*mupen64*cough*), or you can make your own file. They have pretty good docs here.

“Ew, I have to open the terminal everytime I have to use the Wii remote?”

Fine, weakling, here, save these two files:

xwii-select.sh

#!/bin/bash
#requires zenity
xwiipath=<path to XWii>
if [ $1 -ne "" ] ; then
$xwiipath/xwii $1
else
$xwiipath/xwii `zenity –file-selection –title ‘Select your Wii remote profile.’`
fi


You could just double-click this, but you have to give it executable permission (in GNOME, right-click, open “Properties”, go to “Permissions”, and select “Allow executing file as program”) first.

Or you could save this to your desktop.

xwii.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Name=XWii
Exec=bash <path to xwii-select.sh>/xwii-select.sh %U
Categories=Application;Utility;


If you think that’s ugly, append Icon=<put your own icon (absolute file name) here> to that.

If you don’t want to select the profile every single damn time (I think you can drag and drop the profile right on that .desktop file, but I’m not too sure), put the path to the profile you want instead of “%U”.

Wiimote Whiteboard

Why did I ask command you to get an IR LED? This:

The guy’s name is Johnny Chung Lee, the Coolest Guy of the Month. He has more sock-knocker-offers in his site, but only this whiteboard one has been ported to Linux (you can try them in Wine, I haven’t): http://code.google.com/p/linux-whiteboard/

Go to downloads and select the latest version to download, install with “Open With..Gdebi” or double-click it from your file manager.

Now, I haven’t actually tried it, so here’s where I leave you off. You should just have to find the app under “Applications” -> “Accessories” or something.