Gnome Tweaks

Some of these could already be in effect depending on your distribution. Launch the configuration editor from Applications->System Tools->Configuration Editor or by typing gconf-editor in a terminal. Go down the tree to the following:

/apps/gnome-session/options

Here you can disable the show_splash_screen option for a login boost. Now go to:

/apps/metacity/general

Enable the reduced_resources option for a significant speed increase. A little further down the tree at:

/apps/nautilus/preferences

You can disable show_desktop to stop Nautilus from controlling the desktop. Of course this means that you won't get icons or a right-click menu on the desktop. Then, travel down to:

/apps/panel/global

Disable enable_animations and highlight_launchers_on_mouseover. Finally, if you append the following line to your ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file (create it if it doesn't exist) you remove GTK menu delays.

gtk-menu-popup-delay = 0

Parcellite v0.5

Last night I commited v0.5 of Parcellite. Though I'm not releasing it yet, it is fully functional. Aside from being translated from python to C, this version includes a simple CLI interface for command line access to the clipboard. I will make an official release soon after I browse through all the code cleaning up and fixing minor issues along the way. Get it from the subversion repository:

svn co http://xyhthyx.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parcellite parcellite

To compile and install:

./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install

Trip Observations

For those of you who missed my last two posts, I spent 16 days in Winchester Virginia at my sister's house for the holidays. I have been there before, but never during winter. Some observations I made of Virginia compared to the place I grew up (and still live in), Puerto Rico...

• Everything was grey, there were absolutely no leaves on anything but pine trees. Puerto Rico is green all year long.
• It was cold as hell, I had never been in weather below 60. I've lived in tropical weather for 23 years, so I looked like an idiot when I wore skiing-type winter wear when people were only wearing a hoodie.
• Everyone drives really well. They use signal lights! You guys would have constant heart attacks if you drove here. We change lanes without using signals, all lanes are anything goes, we speed alot, tailgate alot, we don't stop when you turn (we just take the incoming lane to avoid slowing down), and we don't take down our long headlights for incoming cars.
• The sun goes down early, around 5:30pm. Over here it always goes down at the same time regardless of the season (around 6:30-7:00).
• Virginians are nice. Not say we aren't nice, people are extremely nice here. But what I mean is I expected some racism or strange looks when I spoke spanish, but got nothing. They were friendly, too friendly sometimes.
• Stuff is cheap. I saw a DS Lite for $120, over here it's $137 not including our 7% tax. Alot of stuff was very well priced, everything is expensive here, especially if you're a tourist. The only thing that's cheap here is housing, school ($45 a credit) and car insurance (what you guys pay a month, we pay per year). Internet is cheap too, my sister was paying $22 for a connection speed twice as fast as the one I had at home, and I pay $40 for mine.

Anyhow, now that I'm back I can concetrate on a few things I didn't do during my vacation. Like work on Parcellite, write an essay for my master's degree application, and prepare for my last semester of Computer Sciences.

While (Vacation == True)

Still freezing my nips off here in Winchester, Virginia. I'm back January 6th.

Happy New Years!