Category: English

Hypothetically

So K made curry last night, and I helped out by chopping the veggies, and I chopped an onion and single-clove garlic and a green chili and then washed my hands and sat down in front of the TV, at which point my nose was slightly runny and I wiped it with the back of my hand and OH MY GOD IT BURNS.

Speaking purely hypothetically, I may also, some two or three ineffective hand-scrubbings later, have gone to the bathroom.

The chili was great, by the way, thanks for asking.

Focus follows mouse in Gnome 3

There are plenty of Google hits on that topic, but so far I haven’t found one that gives the right answer. Here it is:

% dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/wm/preferences/focus-mode \
    "string 'mouse'"

To switch back:

% dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/wm/preferences/focus-mode \
    "string 'click'"

This works in Gnome 3.4, and I assume (but haven’t verified) that it also works in Gnome 3.6. However, given the recent developments in Gnome land, I will probably move away from Gnome altogether.

The return of the FreeBSD desktop

I have a confession to make: I haven’t used FreeBSD as a desktop OS for years. The reason is twofold:

  1. Since 2005, my work has required me to run Linux (Debian and Ubuntu at Linpro, RedHat at the University of Oslo) and, briefly, Windows at Kongsberg Maritime. I eventually stopped using stationary computers, resorting instead to a (company-provided) laptop running either Ubuntu, or Windows with Ubuntu in VirtualBox.
  2. More importantly, around the time I started at Linpro, it became increasingly difficult to maintain a FreeBSD desktop. The modularization of X.org and the increasing complexity of desktop environments mean that the number of packages required for a complete desktop system has grown from a bit over 100 to well over 600 (in addition to the kernel and base operating system, which is monolithic in FreeBSD). The FreeBSD ports system does not scale well, and the lack of a proper binary update procedure makes it almost impossible to keep that many packages up-to-date.

This is about to change. Continue reading “The return of the FreeBSD desktop”