Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Toying with Konqueror -- 10:00 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I've been toying with a browser other than Firefox lately. The thing that has gotten me to look elsewhere is how Firefox handles downloads in Linux. For one, it uses Gnome's interface which is painful. I often save files to different directories. Instead of just being able to type in the URI, I have to use Gnome's file picker which might be nice for new users, but it's a pain if you know what you're doing. Plus, although Firefox begins the download before you tell it where to put the file, once you do choose a location there is a several second pause where Firefox seems to hang.

Overall, Konqueror seems to have all of the features that I liked from Firefox. I haven't found anything like the Web Developer extension though. My only gripe is that there is a conflict between the Flash plugin from Macromedia and QT's OpenGL implementation. The result is that Konqueror becomes VERY unstable and will often crash if Flash is in use. Unfortunately, it seems that Macromedia doesn't want to do anything about it. It's just as well because Flash is a HUGE resource hog in Linux. The audio and video get out of sync very quickly. There is an open source alternative that is being developed. For my money, it can't come soon enough.

Monday, April 17, 2006

KDE 3.5.2 Released -- 11:44 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Somehow at the beginning of the month I missed the announcement that KDE 3.5.2 has been released. KDE is a popular desktop and application collection for Linux. This is mainly a translation update and bugfix release. I'm hoping it will fix the occasional problems I've had with kicker crashing on exit.

Update! After a couple of days of testing I can joyfully announce that kicker is no longer crashing on exit. Phew! It wasn't a huge deal, but it sure was annoying.

WD40 to the Rescue! -- 9:23 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

The "X" button on my Logitech Cordless Action Controller for my PS2 began sticking. Unfortunately, I've read online that this eventually happens with these controllers with buttons that get pressed repeatedly. I tried to take it apart, but once I got the two halves separated a bit, I wasn't sure if I'd get it back together if I pulled it completely apart. Instead, I just tried spraying a slight amount of WD40 by the X button so that it would run down inside. I then pressed the X button a number of times and then set it upside down so any extra would run out. In limited testing, it seems to have worked! We'll see how it goes from here.

No Old News

The Haus is powered by:

All original information on this website is copyright © TheHaus.Net, 1999-2005. The use of original images, text, and/or code from this website without expressed written consent is prohibited. The authors of this site cannot be held responsible for any damage, real or imagined, which comes from the use of information presented on this site. All trademarks used are the properties of their respective owners. This site is not to be used as a floatation device (but if you try, I want a video tape of it).