Probing installed packages/files efficiently using dlocate command
Submitted by yoi on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 23:38It is crucial to efficiently probe packages and files that are already installed on your Linux system, like
- finding the package that a particular file on your system is belonging to,
- checking filenames that are contained in an already installed package.
Recently, I have found that using dlocate command rather than dpkg possibly boosts productivity in doing so. Compared to dpkg, dlocate excels particularly in
- search speed,
- search space,
Mixing 6x13 fixed font and an antialiased Japanese font in Emacs 23
Submitted by yoi on Tue, 02/23/2010 - 00:01I have been using the 6x13 fixed font exclusively in terminals, Emacs, and anywhere else as long as I can configure to use it. The 6x13 is my most favorite font due to its beauty and practical form factor optimized for code development. Especially, using 6x13 with Emacs is crucial when I am writing code.
Playing YouTube Flash videos on a DVD player
Submitted by yoi on Sun, 02/14/2010 - 14:42When watching long YouTube videos such as Google TechTalks, I rather like to watch them on TV through a DVD player with a USB thumb-drive input (See the figure). So I have struggled to convert Flash .flv files downloaded from YouTube into AVI files playable on my DVD player.
Figure: Pioneer DV-510K.
Changing the default external browser for Emacs
Submitted by yoi on Sat, 02/13/2010 - 16:53A couple of months ago, my Emacs (version 22.2.1) started to open URLs using Konqueror web browser instead of Firefox. It seems the external browser configuration for Emacs has been mysteriously changed. Now I finally figured out how to change the default back to Firefox.
First, from the menu bar of Emacs, follow "Options", "Customize Emacs", and "Browse Customization Groups". Then, follow the following steps:
- Click "Option Browse Url Browser Function"
Configuring a dual-head system using xrandr command
Submitted by yoi on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 00:54I have been using my Eee PC 1000H at home since I don't own any desktop computer. I am quite happy with my Eee PC except for its relatively small display (a 10-inch LCD panel) for an indoor computing environment. But, finally, I have decided to buy a larger external display so that I can use it together with my Eee PC. What I got is MITSUBISHI Diamondcrysta RDT1765, a secondhand 17-inch LCD display. What I can do with my two displays? A dual-head system :-) The following is what have tested.
Sending Japanese emails by a Perl script
Submitted by yoi on Wed, 01/20/2010 - 22:25WARNING: Thanks to a generous feedback from J, I have realized that the following method using ISO-2022-JP for Japanese emails is obsolete. Accordingly, I would like to mark the main part of this article as NOT-RECOMMENDED. Instead, in the comment column below, I have posted a fixed script that uses UTF-8. This UTF-8 based emailing script should work not only for Japanese but also for any other non-English languages as well.
