+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Migrating from KDE3 to KDE 4.1

Yay!! First of all, Thank you.

I think now is the time most of the KDE users are going to migrate to KDE 4.1. KDE 4.1 looks so tempting that I really can't wait. So while I compose this blog post, apt is doing all the needful to download the KDE4.1 packages from Debian Experimental. That doesn't  mean I wasn't following KDE 4.x. While, becuasae of resource constraints, Debian made a wise choice of sticking to just a single KDE version (i.e. KDE3 in testing and KDE4 in unstable/experimental), there still are many ways to be able to test KDE 4.x. And by ways, I don't mean a VM or a Live CD. You can definitely do a much better and realistic testing of KDE4 on your production box without fearing of screwing your current KDE 3.x installation. At Debian Wiki, there's a cool howto describing how to do it. If you follow the wiki howto properly, you should even be able to test bling features like KWin's Composite and Plasma.

For me, I've been a native KDE user. I try to stick as much to KDE as possible, for all my application needs. While my workplace depends on MS Exchange for Calendaring, they're pretty open and have provided all the standard access to exchange, i.e. Webdav, IMAP, POP et cetera. With kdepim returning with KDE 4.1, I hoped I'd finally be able to do a complete switch to KDE 4. But that wasn't the case when I did a KDE 4.x testing during RC/Beta using the above mentioned cool howto. Thus this KDE Bugzilla entry. I was very happy to hear that we'd soon be having an akonadi native exchange resource.

But still KDE 4.1 looks very tempting and I can't wait. So here's a small howto on how to sync your exchange calendar while using KDE 4.1 (which doesn't have any of the exchange resources)

• On your KDE4 host, install an IMAP server. I use it for my personal mails that I sync to my hard drive. Using IMAP is good because that way I reliably store the Personal -  Contacts/Calendar/Birthdays/Journals/ToDo and more on my laptop
• Setup a Debian chroot of lenny. Follow the Cool HOWTO
• Install the kdepim suite into the lenny chrooted installation
• Use sux on the host and fire up kontact. You should be able to see your chrooted kontact show up in the current X server desktop
• Configure kmail to use the IMAP server. Make sure you don't subscribe any folder apart from INBOX which contains the PIM resource folders.
• Under Configuration => Miscellaneous, Enable IMAP Groupware Resource Functionality. Make sure to use the KOLAB Format. Resource folders should be in your local IMAP account.
• Now sync your account. Done.
• Now switch to Korganizer of the same chrooted installation.
• Go to its plugins page and enable Exchange 2000 plugin.
• Now, first, add a resource. Calendar of IMAP server. Make it the default resource.
• Now configure your Exchange 2000 Plugin.
• Now Download your Calendar data. This data should now automatically be saved to the IMAP Calendar resource.
• Just do a mail sync and quit from the chrooted environment.
• ..........................
• Now in KDE4 Host installation, fire KDE4's kdepim.
• Do similar configs as above except, subscribe to all folders that you need.
• For Korganizer, enable the Calendar on IMAP Server resource.
• Bingo, You should be able to see your Exchange Calendar requests in KDE4.1 KDEPIM Calendar.
• If all works, send me a Thank You email

Some other things to keep in mind. If you are a Debian User like me, you'll need to do some tweakings because the current KDE4 packages are modified to store all settings in the ~/.kde4/ separately. With this, you'll end up having 2 separate configs. One option I think of is to create a .kde4/ symlink to .kde/ . I believe that should work and inherit most of your settings. I'm yet to try because my installation is still going on. Used tags: debian, exchange, kde_4.1

Keywords: debian,exchange,kde_4.1

+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Boston, MA

I'm currently in Boston, MA to attend the Red Hat Summit.

Boston is awesome. This city has beauty embedded to its roots. Historical, Natural and Charming.

Used tags: boston_ma, red_hat_summit

Keywords: boston_ma,red_hat_summit

+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Beauty in Debian

While this is not really specific to Debian, but somehow it does contribute to it.

One of the reasons why I like Debian a lot is because of its package organization and availability. I take full leverage of the good work the Debian Developers have done packaging various dictionary packages in Debian.

While recently doing a re-installation (Don't ask me why , searching back for the Debian dict packages, yielded in the following:

rrs@learner:~$ apt-cache search dict | grep dict

dict-freedict-hin-eng

This is something really nice in Debian. Searching through the large amount of packages is just plain easy. I wasn't aware of this package at all.

Here's what it turned out to be:

rrs@learner:~$ apt-cache show dict-freedict-hin-eng
Package: dict-freedict-hin-eng
Priority: optional
Section: text
Installed-Size: 2316
Maintainer: Kęstutis Biliūnas <kebil@kaunas.init.lt>
Architecture: all
Source: freedict
Version: 1.3-4
Provides: dictd-dictionary
Suggests: dict | opendict | kdict, dictd | serpento
Filename: pool/main/f/freedict/dict-freedict-hin-eng_1.3-4_all.deb
Size: 1473648
MD5sum: 1c698c7ef611d7c5cd878bb785b00ae8
SHA1: 697b9d904b990640ba98dd9499522f989570627e
SHA256: 64988f08b0b1bf0cc19d4cbefd0939ecc978ad79d7ce7d471ebdf7b22a82e213
Description: Dict package for Hindi-English Freedict dictionary
 This is a package of the Hindi-English Freedict dictionary, formatted
 for the dictionary server and client which uses the DICT Protocol.
Homepage: http://freedict.org/
Tag: culture::hindi, made-of::data:dictionary, role::app-data

Amazing! And the results

rrs@learner:~$ mydict limousine

From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:

  limousine
      n 1: large luxurious car; usually driven by a chauffeur [syn:
           {limousine}, {limo}]

From English-Hindi Freedict Dictionary [fd-eng-hin]:

  limousine <N.>

  1. लिमोजीन
       "She called a limousine to go to the ball."

And then back from Hindi->English

rrs@learner:~$ dict लिमोजीन
1 definition found

From English-Hindi Freedict Dictionary [reverse index] [fd-hin-eng]:

  limousine <N.>

  1. लिमोजीन
       "She called a limousine to go to the ball."

 Sweet!

Used tags: apt, debian, dict, hindi

Keywords: apt,debian,dict,hindi

+ 2 - 0 | § ¶KMail HAM Handling

I have been a long time KMail user and love this email client. It has most of the features that I care about, like Message Threading, Spam Filtering, Disconnected IMAP et cetera.

KMail has good integration with SPAM Handling softwares like spamassassin and bogofilter. The KMail wizard will autoconfigure spamassassin, bogofilter and others (as detected from your installation). The default settings were a little annoying because messages detected as SPAM were re-written with the SPAM Heading. The problem was when spamassassin mis-judged a genuine message as SPAM. Well, we could mark it as HAM, but the added heading never went off.

To revert back the message to its original state, do the following:

1. Select the Classify as Not Spam filter 
2. Add a new filter action

• Pipe Through
• Add the following command in the text box, spamassassin -d

That's it. Now when you click on Not SPAM, the database gets updated and the email message is restored back to its original format.

Used tags: kde, kmail, spam, spamassassin

Keywords: kde,kmail,spam,spamassassin

+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Lambroghini Drink

Last weekend I went to a pub here (In Bangalore). Boozed a llittle.

Two things to think about

1. A unique drink that I had, Lambroghini. Lambroghini was a special drink served with flames. Had to sip the liquor from the flames while the liquid was on file.
2. When returning from the restroom, the waiter told me that I had broke-in into a Ladies Room. Unfortunately no lady was there.

Used tags: bangalore, lambroghini_drink, pub

Keywords: bangalore,lambroghini_drink,pub

+ 2 - 0 | § ¶Amarok Magnatune Last.FM

I'm not a music fanatic. While I see many of my friends and colleagues working, with their headphone on and music playing, for me, it is not at all possible. It is just the opposite. I can't work with music (or any kind of distracting sound) on.

So when I sometimes run Amarok, I used to think what a pile of crap it really is. I mean, look at the resource consumption. Amarok alone took around 20% of CPU cycles when just playing music. This was disappointing as I am a KDE addict and prefer KDE applications over any other. Trying to run other applications led to additional libraries being installed/loaded.

But last night when I was bored and was just running through some of Amarok's features after reading an article about Amarok and Magnatune, I was surprised. Amarok is a music beast. It is a massive wolf. It rocks........ Along with the superb services provided by the folks at Magnatune and Last.FM, Amarok is a wonderful music player to use. I have always advocated about software and related services being tightly integrated. Amarok + Magnatune + Last.FM is just that.

 

Magnatune, what to say about it. It is just awesome. You want to buy an album of a band but aren't sure if the album is good enough. Magnatune is the answer. Magnatune allows you to listen to the music online (using Amarok) and then purchase at a nominal price in all major formats (ogg, mp3, flac et cetera). You can also order a CD to be delivered to you if you don't prefer to download the music. This is awesome. Wonderful. Sweet.

Last.FM. Another wonderful service. Last.FM is an online community of music listeners. You create an account with Last.FM and then feed the credentials to Amarok. Then, as you keep playing your collection in Amarok, Amarok keeps updating the details at Last.FM. This has many benefits. It helps you find people and music, like-minded. You can then listen to music from your Neighbours (Last.FM) which would be similar to what you've been listening. This is again awesome. Wonderful. Sweet.

Podcasts. Another thing I wasn't much aware of. I said it, I'm not a music fanatic. So that led me to not even explore features in Amarok which are beyond music. Amarok is awesome in tracking Podcasts and playing them for you. Now I have my KDE Radio and Linux-Foundation podcast added to Amarok. Amarok informs me of new podcasts, when released. Simple. Wonderful. Sweet.

There must be many more features in Amarok that I've yet not explored. But the above mentioned features alone make Amarok a great player for me.  Thank you Markey and the team. Amarok Rocks.

Used tags: amarok, last.fm, magnatune

Keywords: amarok,last.fm,magnatune

+ 2 - 2 | § ¶Random Thoughts.....

Sometimes things can be so interesting.

Yesterday midnight, after my colleague finished dinner from my place, immediately called me back that he was:
* Hit by an Auto-wallah
And
* The Auto-wallah was drunk
* Didn't have any identification in the auto.
* Instread was demanding money from my colleague.

So trying to sort out matters we moved to the near by police station and let the police-Gentle-man know that he was hit by a drunk auto-wallah.
The actions of the police-Gentle-man are what were more interesting than anything else. It really shows how much of faith one can have in our legal system.
And how much of value do people like us have, here, when our law makers and law-care-takers act such..

BTW, the response was,"There's nothing wrong in being drunk and driving at night".
So that's a new law I've been aware of; and one that can be leveraged. Used tags: bangalore, legal_system_india

Keywords: bangalore,legal_system_india

+ 0 - 2 | § ¶distcc

When Rusty was here during FOSS.IN, he mentioned about utilities without which how difficult life would be.

• Mercurial
• distcc
• ccache

I have been using Mercurial and really love it. It is wonderful. I always thought of spending some time with distcc and see what all it can help.

I am amazed. distcc is exactly what it says. And the setup is so much simple.

I had been fucking my laptop by building KDE4 on it every week. Now I can give her some time to soothe and cool down. She'd gone very hot when building on her

BTW, KDE4 + distcc doesn't require much effort. Just modify the cmakekde() as mentioned on Techbase and customize it to include CC=distcc CPP=distcc CXX=distcc just before the keyword cmake

Used tags: distcc, kde4

Keywords: distcc,kde4