Aja Lapus

Tag: desktop

  • Show Off Your Desktop

    Lexie had me tag myself for showing off her simple, albeit funny, desktop. I really want to do the meme, though I had a little difficulty picking which one out of four systems (or maybe every one) I use I should show, and from which systems I’d pick five of my favorite applications. I eventually decided to go exclusively for the best one (system).

    The meme goes like this: Post a screen shot of your desktop, and list five of your favorite applications.

    And, so, here’s my desktop:

    My Ubuntu Desktop

    The top five applications I currently can’t live without include:

    1. Mozilla Firefox: the best and most extensible Web browser there is. It even runs fast on Linux. Though Linux has inherent security features, the security Firefox gave me when I was still on Windows gave me more peace of mind while browsing the Web.

      Addons: ColorZilla, Download Statusbar, Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer, FxIF, Organize Status Bar, Screen grab!, SearchStatus, ShowIP, Web Developer

    2. GNOME Terminal: a command line interface for Ubuntu, which I use for almost anything not readily available on a GUI.

      Separate apps I run on terminal: SVN, GNU nano

    3. Rhythmbox: Ubuntu’s default music player. This app isn’t really full-featured, IMO. It lacks an equalizer and configurable global hotkeys,[1] among others. But, its readily available plugins that include a very good iPod support, and Last.fm scrobbling makes up for everything. Notably, iPods’ music content could be read and played without syncing.[2] And, it has LIRC support I am hoping to try someday.

      Plugins: Last.fm, iPod, Cover art

    4. Gaim (now Pidgin): a multi-protocol instant messenger. I usually like official IM clients more, but since I use the Yahoo! Messenger service the most often, and the official YM client for UN*X systems became abandonware,[3] and I use Google Talk as well, I opted for the default IM client on Ubuntu. Besides, Psychic Mode is bloody cool.

      Plugins: Buddy State Notification, Message Notification, Message Timestamp Formats, Psychic Mode

    5. µTorrent (with WebUI beta): OK, I cheated as this application runs on my Windows desktop. But, thanks to µTorrent’s very innovative WebUI, I could control it from my Ubuntu notebook as well. I could have used Wine (hat tip to my classmate Luis), but my high-capacity disk is on my desktop anyway.

    Now, there’s some link love you don’t see here everyday. I tag everyone reading this who has a knack for showing off something. 😛

    Footnotes:

    1. ^ for non-multimedia keyboards; Good thing I have multimedia playback keys on my notebook.
    2. ^ I sync with the official iTunes client on my Windows with the big hard drive, and I haven’t tried syncing on Ubuntu yet—or tried checking if it is at least possible.
    3. ^ Latest release for UN*X systems is version 1.0.4 dated September 2003, while the latest Windows release is version 8.1.0.419 dated 29 August 2007.

  • Scrap Metal

    One day, I thought I heard a distant explosion—one you could think of as a failing transformer on an outdoor electrical post. My computer’s power flickered but It came back just nanoseconds later. But I was wrong. My computer wouldn’t turn on anymore. I realized what I heard was a discreet boom from the power supply.

    My whitebox computer exploded Monday last week as I was about to print a document for our Electronics I report. It felt like the sky fell on top of my head. Panic struck me, though I came up with a way to retrieve the data. Besides, only the power supply really blew up. I just removed the hard disk drive from the system unit and plugged it into the external hard disk enclosure bought with our 250-gigabyte hard disk. I made a mess in my room trying to fix things. But, I wasn’t able to print it right away as our notebook doesn’t have a parallel port. Oh well, at least the data wasn’t lost.

    My uncle gave [or lent] me a spare power supply unit from an unused computer to replace that scrap metal I had been using since 2002. I’ve just finished replacing it yesterday along with a busted floppy disk drive and the much larger hard disk drive [the one bought with the enclosure]. I could really describe my computer as katay, which is Tagalog for butchered—a rather exaggerated term for something taken apart [then replaced] piece by piece.

    If you could remember my past article, my desktop computer had its motherboard and CPU replaced. Now, I’ve just replaced the power supply, hard disk drive and floppy disk drive. Hmmm … I wonder when I could build my own computer from scratch with new parts.

    Easy answer: Not today. *tee-hee*

  • Frustrated Entry

    My fixed desktop PC Whew! My desktop PC had just got through from a major overhaul. A couple of months ago, my desktop occasionally hangs even before Windows finish starting up and that incident became worse every day. I was just happy I have a notebook on which I can continue school work and Web work. We brought my dead PC to my uncle, but even after replacing the memory modules and the processor, it still was a wreck. That was when we concluded that the motherboard was the problem. It was now replaced with a new one that includes a whole lot of new features — more USB 2.0 ports, an on-board LAN, support for AGP 8X, and 400-Mhz DIMM slots — I was glad. 😀

    Gawd, I’ve written that [paragraph above] about a week ago. But since I haven’t got all the time in the world, I was not able to finish, especially with all my school work that was nearing their deadlines and finals week that was coming. Now everything that I haven’t been able to write earlier just faded into [my] memory that I am not able to put into words anymore.

    I so hate it when that happens. A Gift from My Princess Good thing my baby gave me this cute little stuffed toy: a tiny fat pig. Oh, you see our resemblance? 😆 Ehehe … I love you, princess! 🙂

    Well, everything has been fine with me unless of course I try to think about my Phys 205 grade, which I have a very bad hunch about. I really hope I’m ready to know what it really is come this Friday. Oh, please wish me all the luck I need …

    Err … I just can’t seem to forget that this entry was a frustrated post. I really hope it won’t happen again. I’m really not so worried about ruining my story, it’s just that I’ve realized I have ruined memory. Oh stop it. I’m not getting that old. 😆

    Now I am thinking: Maybe those wrecked motherboard and slow memory modules that were on my PC caused my memory to leak, too. Waaa!

    OK. I’ll stop now.