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Wednesday, 07 November 2007 |
 (Click to enlarge)About 1 Year ago, on Vista's launch date, I bought a new laptop for college, the HP dv9205us. The laptop was great after I added another gigabyte of RAM, removed Vista, and installed Kubuntu. Although it came with a 1 year warranty from HP, I bought a 3 year warranty from Staples for $199.
Wouldn't you know that about a year after purchase, the LCD gets cracked on a bus as I traveled with my choir. I don't know how it happened, but I do know that it wasn't intentional. So, I call up HP (rather, I chat with them), and they tell me my warranty has however much time left. Then they say that they don't cover "accidental damage." I made the case that the pads that hold the LCD above the keyboard are too thin for a 17in laptop, but they wouldn't listen. (My friends have the same model of laptop I do, only 15in, and the pads are twice as thick..) That got me nowhere. HP pretty much told me to screw off on getting it fixed free. They offered to fix it for the low, low price of $698. I payed $800 for the freaking laptop.
Then, I go to the local Staples that I purchased the laptop from. They tell me to call this "StaplesESP" phone number. I call, hear the welcome message, and then a bunch of stuff in Spanish. Finally, it asks me if contract number BLAHBLAHBLAH is mine. I say no, because I don't know. After trying pretty much every option, I find there is no freaking way to talk to a real person, and I read on the StaplesESP site that "accidental damage" is not covered, as well. I still claim that this is a manufacturer's defect - the pads haven't even done the job before the cracks, the keyboard scratched a line like the Grand Canyon across the middle of the LCD. I will try not to get started about how the LCD was too thin in a place and I could actually see the backlight - cheaply manufactured BS...
What course of action do I take now? I go the DIY route. I just purchased an LCD brand new on eBay from a reputable seller for about $200. That's quite a bit better than $698, isn't it.
Freaking warranties aren't worth the paper they're printed on. When accidental isn't covered, you can only claim manufacturer's defect, and when you do something like that, they can still spin it to make it "accidental." Freaking evil corporations. I'm buying a Mac next time.
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Wednesday, 10 October 2007 |
3 FREE 2009 Game codes can be found here!
I remember using a certain code that was on promotional pictures for the McDonald's Monopoly game last year, and it turns out it works again this year. INeedAttention.com was the first to try it this time around, and it worked!
So, to do this you need to go to PlayAtMcD.com and register. Then, enter the code I6L6V4N4T2 . "I'm Lovin' It?" Anyway, this will give you the maximum (3 or 4) doubles rolls, and gets you closer to winning something, although there are sortof low odds..
That said, go do it!
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Thursday, 04 October 2007 |
I have really fallen in love with Kubuntu, and I am coming pretty far along in making it "mine." Besides the speed tweaks, hacks, and UI customizations, I didn't have a custom kernel. So I have made one, in a sense, via a patchset based on the kamikaze patchset. You can get a copy of mine here, and it SHOULD apply to any kernel from the Ubuntu or Vanilla sources up to now from 2.6.22-10. I haven't tried it with the newest vanilla release, though. You may have to play a little with some patches here or there to settle some line discrepancies, but they should still work. Make sure to read "series," as it contains the patch order and other informations. Some patches probably won't apply, like the matt-version patch, but don't sweat it. Just do a dry run before you try it.
This patchset includes:- The CFS scheduler
- Power saving patches
- Some minor speed tweaks
- A choice of some HZ frequencies that decrease overhead and increase speed
- A few other things, like file system drivers, and the xpad driver
I will try to write a tutorial about this, and include info regarding kernel optomisation. Whatever the case, give my patches a try, and read "series"!
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Sunday, 16 September 2007 |
2008-07-08: local.conf syntax fixed.
This one doesn't just apply to KDE, it applies to every Linux window manager out there. I suggest that before going through this guide, you go through either the KDE or Gnome guide for sharp fonts first, to get your DPI settings correctly set, and get font settings to be the same for your GTK apps, too.
(After...click to enlarge in new window/tab)
Once you have done that, these 3 simple tweaks will simply amaze you by the clarity and beauty of the fonts on your Linux box. You will need to have the Microsoft fonts installed for any of these tweaks to work. I found these while Googling, and can't remember the addresses. Credit goes to the original writers of this code, though. It's time I stop rambling on, and get on to the good stuff...here goes!
Tweak 1: /etc/fonts/local.conf – Get Rid of Ugly Fonts Wherever your font config information is (usually /etc/fonts/local.conf), you need to edit or create the local.conf file, and paste this inside and save:
<fontconfig>
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>Bitstream Vera Sans</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign">
<string>Verdana</string>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>Helevetica</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign">
<string>Arial</string>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>Palatino</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign">
<string>Georgia</string>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>Times</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign">
<string>Times New Roman</string>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>
What this does is replace the ugly default system fonts with the nice proprietary Microsoft fonts, which are much clearer, and look better anti aliased. Make sure you have them installed. You can do this to replace any fonts you don't like.
Tweak 2: userChrome.css – Make Firefox's toolbars and menus use nice fontsThis tweak makes Firefox use Tahoma for its toolbars and menus. Feel free to change it to whatever font you prefer. Usually, this goes in /home/yourname/.mozilla/profiles/yourprofile/Chrome/userChrome.css – create it if it doesn't exist in the Chrome folder.
{
font-size: 10pt !important;
font-family: Tahoma !important;
}
Tweak 3: userContent.css – Make website buttons look goodDespite these tweaks, you can sometimes end up making the buttons on various websites too big or too small. This fix takes care of that in /home/yourname/.mozilla/profiles/yourprofile/Chrome/userContent.css – create it if it doesn't exist in the Chrome folder.
input, textarea, select, button,
input[type="button"], input[type="reset"], input[type="submit"] {
font-size: 8pt !important;
font-family: Verdana !important;
}
That's it! Wasn't that easy? Now, restart your xserver, and see how everything looks! Isn't it beautiful?
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Monday, 10 September 2007 |
I have recently thought about some serious and non-serious assumptions that claim Elvis Presley was an alien being. In that light, I thought I would expose this Top-Secret photograph providing proof of this assumption. Click to enlarge.
 Feel free to republish, just save it and don't hot link or I will kill you.
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