The Answer Gang
By Jim Dennis, Jason Creighton, Chris G, Karl-Heinz, and... (meet the Gang) ... the Editors of Linux Gazette... and You!
We have guidelines for asking and answering questions. Linux questions only, please.
We make no guarantees about answers, but you can be anonymous on request.
See also: The Answer Gang's
Knowledge Base
and the LG
Search Engine
Contents:
How do I get a non-US keyboard mapping in Xnest?
Question about file mtime on linux
Xlib WMs and Applications
icewm light weight desktop
Greetings from Heather Stern
Greetings, and welcome to summertime in the world of
Got Questions?
We're seeing a drop in the number of good questions though. Or even bad ones. Jim (the Answer Guy himself) attributes this to all the good questions having already seen answers in past columns. This can't be completely the case - and on rare occasions the answers do change and why they had to is a juicy discussion. But there's certainly some grain of truth to it.
We like it when more people ask the answer gang their linuxy questions.
Ah, but that's not the topic I've planned to yak about for this month. Maybe in a later column, when The Answer Guy brings back his Retrospectives, I'll do a nice breakdown on how people find helpful friends these days. But I've been having a lot of fun (and even some clients) doing web glitz, so I'm probably going to talk about that next month. Send in your own tidbits of good web techniques, we'll make a pool of them.
Good Companions
I had spring cleaning last month, which means that this month there is room on my desk - and in my office - for some nifty things. Right now my lab's about to bloom with new power and color, as I bring machines from my internet lounge into gear. I haven't decided if I'll run them with full distros this time, a liveCD again as I usually do (Knoppix being the front runner), or as terminals served off one higher quality machine, in the same spirit that the K-12 LTSP people do. One way or another it's bound to be a fun time at Baycon again this year, as my starship gets a Piece O' Da Action. I should invite our Editor In Dark Glasses along, and see if the ladies who fly the black helicopters are inclined to TAG along...
My teddybear now has a permanent place of honor on my FVWM desktop. If you've been paying attention you've got a copy of him in your /usr/share/xteddy directory too, from our February cover art and perhaps he brightens your day. Thomas gave me a rather sweet birthday present that I hadn't gotten around to showing you folks - note, this is very specific to FVWM, and you have to name your bear correctly, too.
First, you symlink xteddy to the name bear so the window title will be separate.
Second, add this fragment to your .fvwm2rc. It's kind of important to advise FVWM that he accepts WM hints:
See attached misc/tag/bouncing-bear.fvwm.txt
Third, I added a little bit to my fvwm's StartFunction which makes sure that bear's on my desktop. You'll probably have the geometry a little different - have fun with it...
AddToFunc StartFunction + I Test (init) Exec exec /usr/bin/fvwm-root /home/heather/.fvwm/stars16a.xpm + I Test (init) Exec exec bear -wm -geometry +1320+820
Now anytime I press Shift-Alt-B he bounces. The only mystery I haven't solved - feel free to send in if you're a fvwm fan who knows the answer - is that if I have clicked him, say to drag him out of the way momentarily - then he won't bounce anymore, until I've minimized him. Then his minimized form bounces fine, and so does his restored form. Pretty silly seeing the word with no picture bounce like that. It makes me giggle.
I hope you're enjoying a happy Summer. As for me, it's too bright out there, time to go hide in my starfields for awhile. Stargazing fans, the skies are clear, and there's plenty of software to tell us what to look for. In the realm of spaceward travels, things are... if you'll pardon the expression... looking up. Bye now!
You, too, can join The Answer Gang. Send your submissions to: tag .at. linuxgazette.net - Thanks!
