Setting up compass stylesheet authoring framework in Ubuntu 10.10

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In case it’s useful to other Ubuntu users, here’s a quick and painless way of getting the compass stylesheet authoring framework version 0.10.6 set up and ready to rock in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat.

sudo apt-get install ruby1.9.1
sudo gem1.9.1 install compass
sudo echo "PATH=$PATH:/var/lib/gems/1.9.1/bin:$HOME/.gem/ruby/1.9.1/bin" > /etc/profile.d/rubygems1.9.1.sh
compass version

I’m not a Ruby on Rails developer, and I’m not overly familiar with Ruby configuration, Rails, gems, etc., but the above steps were found on a couple of mailing list and forum posts.

I’m still finding my way round the mixins, features and syntax that compass offers, but very much believe in the power of using such a framework to cut down on manual CSS typing and future maintenance issues. I’ve started building up my own framework and am looking forward to using it in future projects.

Fixing Clementine and other music players crashing in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat (gstreamer)

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After my new installation of Ubuntu on my new rig, I was annoyingly unable to play music with Clementine. When Clementine was run from the command line, it would exit with “Segmentation fault”. A gdb backtrace showed that it was gstreamer that was crashing, so I found and updated from the PPA for GStreamer developers which has solved the issue.

Here are the steps on the command line required to use it:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gstreamer-developers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

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SSD in Linux and trim (“discard”)

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My new workstation is “finished”; I’ve been using it for client work and all seems well. I meant to post interim updates on its progress along with some photos, but got carried away with the build. No doubt I’ll get some photos on here soon.

One minor issue which I resolved (at least for now) last night was annoying pauses in GNU/Linux (Ubuntu), which I use as my main operating system. These roughly second-long pauses in which my mouse input wasn’t actioned seemed to occur particularly often when doing things like switching tabs in Thunderbird’s settings dialogue boxes amongst other things. Continue reading →

Workstation PC build: 1 – components

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A short while ago my workstation computer’s power supply unit went bang, and after taking it to the PC repair shop down the road it transpired that it took down the motherboard with it. I’d been planning to get a new PC for a while anyway, and this event brought the upgrade forward rather abruptly.

My first idea was to buy a pre-built system, perhaps from Dell. But after doing a bit of reading up on the current landscape of PC components, including a Custom PC magazine or two, the bug bit me and I decided to build myself. I’ve purchased my components from SNOGARD and Mindfactory – both German retailers.

Only the graphics card is to come – hopefully tomorrow – so I can start work and test the core components either tonight or tomorrow morning. Here are a few unboxing photos and some notes on the components I have so far.

Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Deluxe

A socket 1155 board which takes the new Sandy Bridge processors from Intel (see below). It also uses a new type of BIOS, allowing for mouse usage and a more graphical approach to changing settings. The Deluxe version comes with a front USB 3.0 plate which is important as my case only has USB 2.0 ports at the front. This motherboard also allows for three graphics cards to be used (the third limited to 4x), but I’ll probably only ever use two at most.

Asus P8P67 Deluxe motherboardAsus P8P67 Deluxe motherboardAsus P8P67 Deluxe motherboardAsus P8P67 Deluxe motherboardAsus P8P67 Deluxe motherboardAsus P8P67 Deluxe motherboard Continue reading →

January 2011: a busy month

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Christmas and New Year were good, and I’m glad I got to spend them with my special someone, her family, and my brother who came to visit us in Germany. I’ve got lots of work on the go which is great, so you’d think I’d now be in the “studio” slaving away over a hot keyboard, but I’m actually in the UK on a brief family visit.

The original reason for my trip to England was a two-day business meeting with a client and developer colleague. This happened Thursday and Friday of last week, and was really enjoyable and encouraging despite my having a cold and finding the length of our sessions a little long at times. The two gentlemen who myself and my colleague were meeting are extremely interesting to talk to and work with if you’re into visual methods of communication – this is what their business is all about in the context of teaching/learning – and I’m excited about the things we’ll be developing together. Continue reading →

I’m closing my Amazon account

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I hold freedom of speech and the press to be important, and find Amazon’s actions against Wikileaks to be cowardly. Whilst Amazon is entitled to do or not do business with customers as it chooses, I feel that if a business wishes to make profits via its customers it should respect their right to information, even if parts of its government do not.

As a result, I am closing my Amazon account, as has Daniel Ellsberg and, no doubt, many others. This involves sending Customer Service a message from within one’s account pages.

Once I manage to set up an alternative means of payment for one of my domain name registering service providers, I shall also be closing my PayPal account for the same reason.

Google, please don’t let the Wave die out

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Update: there is a campaign to save Google wave at http://www.savegooglewave.com/

Google Wave really struck me with its potential when I first saw what it was about. Adding the persistence of email to the real-time nature of instant messaging in an environment open to multiple participants was one of those things that now seems so simple and blindingly obvious. During its preview I’ve successfully used it with two clients and a few friends, and avoiding email copying to multiple recipients in order merely to have a textual conversation was great.

So I’m extremely disappointed that Google has announced it doesn’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product.

I’m aware many people’s response to Wave has been one of confusion or apathy. Many seemed to think that it was pointless. But I believe expectations were misplaced. Continue reading →