Category Archives: google

Starting the Google Detox – RSSLounge

Posted by on July 24, 2011 16 comments

Everyone that knows me knows I’m a hardcore Google fan and enthusiast despite having been stung by them once, but with their recent launch of Google+ and all the news I keep hearing about how the faceless company keeps closing accounts without warning or a trial, I’ve decided to migrate away from Google, slowly.

The first service to go is Google Reader. For those of you that don’t know of it, it’s a very neat online RSS Reader that allows you to share and read RSS/Atom feeds from blogs and planets. Being online means I could access it from my phone and tablet (Which is something Liferea couldn’t do) and it got very convenient.

But now I’m switching over to RSSLounge. Of course, I set this up on my server by following their simple Instructions. I exported the OPML file from GReader and imported it into RSSLounge. A few moments later, and I was done.

RSSLounge lets you set feed priorities, which I think is super awesome, supports image rss feeds (And displays them beautifully), and only requires a server with PHP and MySQL and the source code available in GPLv3.

The User Interface is also beautiful, I can’t say right now if it’s better than GReader’s, but you can judge it yourself: They’ve got a demo set up.

I’m not going cold turkey on the Google Detox, but I’m slowly starting to migrate away from them, with Thunderbird replacing their WebUI already, and Duck Duck Go + Wolphram Alpha handling some searches but not all of them, and they get to keep my email just a little bit longer.

Like a mighty Jaffa once said. Shal’kek nem’rom. 

Update: I wrote this before reading this Slashdot Post on how getting your account suspended means kiss your calendars and emails good-bye. Looks like I started my Detox just in time.

Update 2: I’ve left Google+ already and removed all the +1 buttons from my site. SEO be damned.

Gnome 3′s fallback mode minimum panel size

Posted by on July 4, 2011 2 comments

I’ve been trying to shrink the Panel Size in Gnome 3 and it’s been driving me insane. Apparently the devs decided it would be hilarious to have the minimum size set dynamically based on your screen size and orientation.

From panel-toplevel.c

int panel_toplevel_get_minimum_size (PanelToplevel *toplevel)
{
return calculate_minimum_height (GTK_WIDGET (toplevel),
toplevel->priv->orientation);
}

I changed my copy to this


--- a/gnome-panel/panel-toplevel.c 2011-04-01 04:39:58.000000000 -0600
+++ b/gnome-panel/panel-toplevel.c 2011-07-04 13:44:12.161608721 -0500
@@ -2426,9 +2426,9 @@
else
non_panel_widget_size = 0;

- minimum_height = calculate_minimum_height (GTK_WIDGET (toplevel),
- toplevel->priv->orientation);
-
+ //minimum_height = calculate_minimum_height (GTK_WIDGET (toplevel),
+ // toplevel->priv->orientation);
+ minimum_height=15; //Taken from a totally fair random roll of 1d20
if (toplevel->priv->orientation & PANEL_HORIZONTAL_MASK) {

height = MAX (MIN (MAX (height, toplevel->priv->size),
@@ -5355,8 +5355,9 @@
int
panel_toplevel_get_minimum_size (PanelToplevel *toplevel)
{
- return calculate_minimum_height (GTK_WIDGET (toplevel),
- toplevel->priv->orientation);
+ //return calculate_minimum_height (GTK_WIDGET (toplevel),
+ // toplevel->priv->orientation);
+ return 15; //Taken from a totally fair random roll of 1d20
}
int

I need to recompile the gnome-custom-menu, because the new one forces the top bar back to 29 pixels, but at the moment, I’m enjoying my 10 extra pixels.

GSOC: Fedora Events System starts!

Posted by on April 27, 2011 8 comments

In case you haven’t heard, the Google Summer of Code has started, and my project idea, the “Fedora Events System” was chosen as one of the projects that Google will sponsor.

Hiemanshu Sharma, who has previously worked with Fedora’s Websites as well as other Fedora infrastructure will be the student working on this project.

In a nutshell, the Fedora Events System will be a webapp designed to move away from Wiki-Event-Pages and onto a solid Web App designed to handle events and people. The goal here is to make event organization less stressful, and handle some types of events, like Barcamps, in a much more friendlier way.

Hiemanshu and I will be blogging along the days to come with progress and updates on the project. If all goes well, we should have everything up and running before Summer’s end.

30 Day Geek Challenge – Day 22: Favorite Videogame Company

Posted by on April 19, 2011 2 comments

Missed the list? I’m doing a 30 day geek challenge.

Valve. Creators of games like Half-Life, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead and Portal. Now if only they’d bring their warez to Linux…

GSOC: Fedora Events System

Posted by on April 7, 2011 2 comments

Google’s Summer of Code is about to start, and The Fedora Project managed to get in this year’s GSOC Program.

I’m in charge of the Fedora Events System project.
I’ve already got some people interested and can only choose one, but I’d still like to extend the invitation to any student that’s interested in developing the Web App throughout the summer.

I’m looking for a Java Developer that’s comfortable with CSS/HTML/JavaScript. In fact, I’d prefer if you’re more skilled in Web-stuff than Java stuff.
Java stuff, I can teach. I’ve also considered Python and PHP Web Developers, but I admit I’m not very familiar with those technologies, and I’m afraid I wouldn’t be much help. I’d prefer to stick with Java because I want this project finished by summer’s end, and with your help, we can make it happen.

You can apply on the Google Melange website. The deadline to apply is tomorrow, April 8th.

Did you mean… Avogadro?

Posted by on June 14, 2010 Comments Off

Did you mean... Avogadro?

In case it wasn’t fairly obvious, the name ‘Abugadro’ is a mix between “Avogadro” and “Bugs”. You can call it “Abuga” if you want, since I hear “Abugadro” is kinda hard to pronounce for Portuguese-speakers (Or so my buddy Matruskan tells me).

This project is intended to make browsing Launchpad, Google Codes and Bugzilla projects a bit easier for Android devices.

The code’s starting to flow on the Google Code Project but its nowhere near ready for an early alpha test.