Things you shouldn't do

Things you shouldn't ever be doing.

• Transform a filename into a URI like that:

uri = g_strdup_printf ("file:///%s", filename);

Use g_filename_to_uri() instead. Same goes for the opposite direction, where stripping "file://" isn't good enough to transform a URI into a local filename. Use g_filename_from_uri(), or g_file_get_path() if you're actually going to be opening the files.

• Use GStreamer to play a single small pop sound:

Use libcanberra instead. It's portable, might use GStreamer in some cases, and very certainly requires less code for a simple use like this.

Bruno, you should get a Bugzilla component for Garfunkel.

NB: It doesn't actually look like that

If you read the Phoronix article about the new gnome-volume-control (also seen linked from OSNews), don't worry, the upstream (and Fedora) applet doesn't look like that.


It looks like that.



Ubuntu's mixer applet is a different UI on the old mixer applet in gnome-applets, and not the PulseAudio-powered volume applet now in gnome-media.

In addition to the article being outdated (the treeview with the one-by-one sound event customisation is already gone), it also invents new features such as «the ability to adjust the alert volume on a per-alert basis». God knows where they got that from.

/The guy who did the last gnome-media release

Thanks anonymous person

I'd like to thank the anonymous benefactor who wished me happy new year by offering me a copy of WALL·E on Blu-Ray. You just bought me my first Blu-Ray movie.

I'm usually a bargain hunter for films, and will usually spend a fiver at most on a film, so even the Blu-Ray "sales" of two films for £30 I find outrageously expensive.

Thanks again, and I'll mention that your message was a bit mangled and some characters appeared as XML entities, so feel free to send it again by mail :)

I pay my TV license

Therefore, I'll want to listen to 5 Live tomorrow lunch time, when I'm in France, but United play Stoke.

This is more a little for me, but could be useful for other expats :)

1. Create a Socks5 proxy:
ssh -D 9999 your.remote.host

2. Build the tsocks library

3. Create a tsocks.conf file:
server = 127.0.0.1
server_port = 9999
server_type = 5

4. Launch a (simple) player with proxy support:
TSOCKS_CONF_FILE=`pwd`/tsocks.conf LD_PRELOAD=`pwd`/libtsocks.so.1.8 mplayer -playlist http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/live/live.asx

Voila. See also Bug 505456.

Me stickers!

I haven't received my stickers yet.

Serves you right

On Friday evening, for the GNOME London beer do (version 2.0 apparently), we went past the offices for the Express, a paper as high as the Daily Mail on the puke-tastic scale of yobbish prejudice.

A couple of weeks ago (seems like months now), Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand played a prank on someone in a BBC Radio 2 show that very few people listen to in the first place: 2 complaints. In comes media circus, the Fleet St. buddies in pole, and there the number of complaints rises. My despair rises.

Grauniad blogger and journalist Charlie Brooker vents his screenburn frustration at that lot, and I shake my head every day at their covers. You'll soon know about the dead girl corner, and the «free shit» banner. Just don't read their website, an immigrant plumber might get onto your computer.

Momentous moment

Tonight, 3 months after ordering it, I finished watching the complete West Wing. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in politics, especially when put into context with the Clinton, Bush and upcoming Obama administrations, as well as the Gore, Kerry and McCain presidential races. Now maybe I should watch some episodes of the New Statesman again, to flush that too-political feeling.