Category Archives: General

Polishing up the Lubuntu Notification Area

Posted on 2012-02-15 by Stephan Sokolow

Whether you call them system tray icons, systray icons, or notification icons, you have to admit that these things can easily get out of control, even on Linux. Attempts are being made to tidy them up, like appindicators and the … Continue reading →

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Converting Faenza Panel/Toolbar Icons into Elementary Panel Icons

Posted on 2012-02-14 by Stephan Sokolow

Icons that look like they’re carved into their substrate are all the rage these days, but if you’re not an artist, making them can be tricky and the Elementary them Lubuntu uses by default doesn’t have a large selection ready … Continue reading →

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Making the Pidgin Tray Icon Show Status in Lubuntu

Posted on 2012-02-13 by Stephan Sokolow

Symptoms On these Lubuntu Linux versions (and possibly others), the Pidgin tray icon never changes to show your status or notify you of unread messages. Lubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Lubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Lubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Reason Pidgin uses … Continue reading →

Posted in Geek Stuff | 6 Comments

Downloading YouTube Subtitles

Posted on 2012-02-09 by Stephan Sokolow

A few days ago, for the first time, I wanted to save the YouTube subtitles/closed captions for a video. (It was a Russian newscast about the trolololo guy which wasn’t hard-subbed) Unfortunately, I only had tools in hand for downloading … Continue reading →

Posted in Web Wandering & Opinion | 18 Comments

Using Twig with Fat-Free Framework: Why and How

Posted on 2012-02-07 by Stephan Sokolow

Having used Fat-Free Framework 2.x for a little while now, I’m still generally quite happy with it… aside from one thing. The built-in templating engine’s syntax doesn’t offer many advantages over raw PHP, it’s more verbose in certain common cases, … Continue reading →

Posted in Geek Stuff | 11 Comments

Setting Custom Game Icons in Desura

Posted on 2012-01-28 by Stephan Sokolow

I just discovered Desura’s Linux client and, given the opportunity to have a DRM-free package repository system for my Humble Bundle games, I jumped at the chance. Of course, I still wanted to keep all my games together in one … Continue reading →

Posted in Geek Stuff | 2 Comments

Good Villain, Bad Villain

Posted on 2012-01-26 by Stephan Sokolow

The difference between a well-done villain like Ursula in Disney’s The Little Mermaid and a poorly done one like Rasputin in Don Bluth’s Anastasia is actually pretty simple. With a well-done villain, you can understand and sympathize with whatever made … Continue reading →

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