Print to a non-supported printer from Linux

My mother bought a Kodak ESP 7 multifunction printer a few months ago. Since then, she has started using a netbook with Ubuntu Netbook Remix on it full-time. For a while now I have been intending to find a way to print to it from the netbook.
Unfortunately, Kodak decided to be one of the few [...]

Fix volume control in mpd on Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04

I have mpd installed on my jaunty server. It works well, except that I found the volume control in my clients never worked.
Reading around, I found a slightly cryptically mentioned solution. In your /etc/mpd.conf, uncomment the line that says mixer=software, then restart mpd (sudo /etc/init.d/mpd restart). All should be well!

Mobile development.

I saw earlier on Smashing a list of things required to make and sell an iphone application. Here it is:
Below is a list of items you’ll need (*starred items are required, the rest are nice-to-have’s):

join the Apple iPhone Developer Program ($99) *
get iPhone or iPod Touch *
get an Intel-based Mac computer with Mac OS [...]

How to change desktops with a shell command or script?

Does anyone know how to change desktops (in Compiz) with a shell command or script? I have been wanting this for a while, and would be cool to integrate with my new MX Revolution.

Personal vs. Political Lives

I’m sure everyone out there has heard about the cheating South Carolina governor, Mark Sanford.
I don’t politically like the man, he is a polar opposite to my views in almost all ways.
That being said, I don’t care whether he has an affair. Big deal. He fails at his job as a husband. The people of [...]

Resuming Posting

I am bored, so I have decided to resume posting to my blog. It’s been a while. Now that I have my aforementioned Android phone, I can post from there as well. I will try.
It may end up being all rants and such, but, hey, why not. I might as well.

I have an android phone

I just got an android phone, and it is awesome. About a million times more open than iphone plus background apps = perfect.
Qwerty keyboard is nice too.
Posted this to see how it works for blogging. I may start posting more often if I can do it from my cellphone…

Why does the YouTube video player suck?

These days, flash players can do amazing things. Look at Hulu, Veoh, and 5min’s incredible players. However, Youtube has used the same, basic, crappy flash player that they have for years. It’s big, ugly, and doesn’t even work well. It has A/V sync issues, can’t handle going to fullscreen and back, no transparency, all of [...]

Fix for can’t start graphical apps as admin.

Earlier today I would get an error about not being able to read the users Xsession file or something when I tried to start any Administrator program from the menu. sudo worked fine, but gksudo (the graphical password entry thing) didn’t.
Solution: full root partition.
Tips to free up space:

Restart. This clears /tmp
sudo apt-get autoremove && sudo [...]

Easy Auto-Update Sunlight Wallpaper

I used a post at Lifehacker to create my own, auto-updating, sunlight tracking wallpaper.
It is quite easy. It assumes that your Pictures directory is located at ~/Pictures. Change it in the script if yours is different. Just put it anywhere and execute it. If it doesn’t execute, just chmod +x changer.
Here is the script:
#!/bin/bash
cd ~/Data/Pictures/Wallpapers/
if [...]