And the beast shall be made legion. Its numbers shall be increased a thousand thousand fold. The din of a million keyboards like unto a great storm shall cover the earth, and the followers of Mammon shall tremble.
from The Book of Mozilla, 3:31
(Red Letter Edition)

Hello, all. Haven't written here in a while, sorry, I've been busy....

But I have a couple of thoughts on Mozilla. In the coming months (the site is shooting for June, I think), 1.0 will be upon us. A lot of people in this thread seem to think it's a while off. But In My Humble Opinon, Mozilla 1.0 will be the first real triumph of Open Source. This is larger than Apache or Linux. Mozilla is software that endusers of workstations will use without having to learn a whole new, unfamiliar system. And with the pending Microsoft suit, it could be a real replacement for whatever webrowser you are using. The main obstacle to widespread Mozilla adoptation is the fact that not many people know it exists. So go ahead. Tell people. Lots of people. Spread the word. Personally, I think that 0.9.8 is a perfectly good browser (coulda called it 1.0 and pulled it off early). I foresee it not being adopted directly, but through one of its frontends (Netscape 6, Galeon). The main thing that the Mozilla people need to do with 1.0 is work on the interface. My other whiny wishlist for Mozilla can be found here.

What are you thoughts as we approach Mozmas?

None of my articles have been accepted: here's a list:
        * 2002-01-02 01:59:45 Office for Linux? (askslashdot,linux) (rejected)
        * 2002-01-12 01:32:22 Video Game Characters + Personality (articles,humor) (rejected)
        * 2002-01-12 20:06:46 Yopy isn't dead yet! (articles,pilot) (rejected)
        * 2002-01-27 16:57:12 Amish Laptops (articles,humor) (rejected)
        * 2002-01-27 17:06:14 New Google Catalog Search (articles,internet) (rejected)
        * 2002-02-04 23:07:11 Loki to Liquidate (articles,linuxbiz) (rejected)

Why not? They accept plently of more inane articles. Bet you that at least one of these people would be interesting in knowing. Maybe my user ID number is too high.

Proposed Slashdot Feature:
Editors have choice of short list of reasons why the article was rejected.

And yes, I have heard others whining about this too. My theroy is that Slashdot is too crowded...

That error surfaced when I tried to check my Hotmail account today. I'm using Mozilla 0.9.7. Here's my wishlist for 1.0:

-Verbose Error Messages: I'd like to know exactly what the problem is.

-Galeon-style Search Boxes: A good feature.

-Better GNUStep compadibility: At least pick up the default icon! Sheesh...

-Better handling of downloads: Often, I must specify that it is a download.

-Decent Gopher client: Please? A good Gopher client? Pretty please?

-Monitors: Be able to have applets integrated into the toolbars.

-Toolbars more customizable: Add toolbars, remove toolbars, change toolbars...

-Cookie management simplified: Instead of having to block every third-level, why can't I just tell it a second-level domain to block?

-Shockwave: Yes, I know that it's propritary. But maybe some serious workage with WINE could pull this off.

-Java Applets: Still doesn't quite work right.

-Add-in improvement: Adding add-ins in nearly impossible. The module files almost never install correctly.

-True Full-Screen: Kiosk mode, please.

Yikes! Booted up my computer today and X sez:
Cannot load default font "fixed"
That's really scary. It displays nice nvidia logo, and then crashes back to the terminal. How am I writing this, you ask? Links. A text browser. I could write this in glorious Mozilla, but I can't, cos my X server doesn't work.
UPDATE Jan 27 10:04 EST: I got X working again by adding FontPaths into my XF86Config-4 file. The problem is, I preferred my font server! But my font server appears to have totally deep-sixed.

But wait! There's more. I tried to burn an iso with gcombust and it doesn't work! It turns the CD into a coaster. GToast, my normally preferred CD Burn program doesn't support ISOs, so I'm using gcombust as a fallback.

That's all my gripes for today. Thanks for listening.

People, I need a new project. I know I have DAIO waiting, but that's a really big project, and I don't even know where it should go next: I've got an editor, a image viewer, what else do I need? A terminal emulator? Can you do that in CLX? Plus some hurtles: how do I do shell interrupts? some code that I use in one place works, but doesn't work in another place: why? How do I process strings?

Anyway, the point is that I want a new project. I've got some minimal C++/Perl/CLX/BASIC skillz, and I'd like to help develop. If you've got a project that needs help, comment on a place where I can find it. Yes, I know, SourceForge, but I'm daunted, and they all seem like they know what they're doing: little use for a newbie. I'm willing to help your project. Comment below.

Argargargarg! If I read the directions correctly, installing the nVidia drivers would be as easy as
# rpm -ivh NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-2313.i386.rpm
# rpm -ivh NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-2313.mdk81up.i686.rpm
and then adding in the "Modules" section of etc/X11/XF86Config:
Load "glx"
Load "dri"
Load "GLCore"
and then simply restarting. They lied. Whenever I try and start Chromium, I get the error message:
WARNING: could not read config file (/home/elliot/.chromium)
WARNING: could not read score file (/home/elliot/.chromium-score)
randomizing.
SDL initialized.
Couldn't set GL mode: Couldn't find matching GLX visual
with BZFlag, something different:
Can't create window. Exiting.
and with glxgears:
Error: couldn't get an RGB, Double-buffered visual
However, glxinfo returns apparently normal:
      visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
  id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x23 15 tc 0 0 0 c . . 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x24 15 tc 0 0 0 c . . 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x25 15 dc 0 0 0 c . . 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x26 15 dc 0 0 0 c . . 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None

This vexes me. Why do these things work like this? How do I fix it? Where can I go for troubleshooting? And yes, I have tried searching Google for it.

I know of FreeCiv and xpilot, but are there any other free multiplayer games for Linux out there? If so, where can I get them? I'd like a game that doesn't require 3D, since I can't figure out how to enable 3D on my GeForce 256 card. (and yes, I tried the tutorials, but when it came time to compile the kernel module, a huge ERROR: WRONG CC COMPILER popped up... guess nVidia isn't using gcc)

Icarus Studios (that's me) is developing a cross-platform (thanks to CLX) program called DAIO (DAIO All-In-One). This means that instead of having to pull down menus to save a file, all you must do is type 'save' into the input box and a save dialouge box pops up. DAIO is really a proof-of-concept thingy, but it's still kinda cool. No reaching for the mouse.

From the technical perspective, DAIO is not standardized in terms of programming, only the DAIO interface is standardized. And yes, I am aware that this kind of thing has probably been thought of before. If you can find such a project, have questions, or comments (but no flames or trolls) I'll read them.

By a suggestion, I decided to try Geocities to host my programs. It just won't let me upload my .tar files. Why, pray tell, am I using .tar? Because I can't figure out, for the life of me, how to create .tar.gz files. But creating .tar is very easy: tar --create foo/ > foo.tar is usually enough. Now, don't get me wrong. I did try tar -z --create foo/ > foo.tar.gz, but when I tried to unzip it, I got some nasty errors. It did unzip, then it told me stuff like:
gzip: stdin: decompression OK, trailing garbage ignored
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
How to fix this? A good tutorial on .tgz would be appreciated. Thanks. And any word from GeoCities on why I can't upload .tar files? Any input (other than troll/flame) is appreciated.

UPDATE Jan 21 11:26 EST: I've figured it out. Plus, get the tarballs at Icarus Studios, see our old sites , this one had a modification done to it by accident, and the person charged with keeping the password forgot it, and the very oldest site .

Yaaayy....

After nearly 30 minutes of hard, mind-numbing labour, I've cranked out a full CLX program that hardly does anything! It's an "Image Viewer" program. If you have some webspace, I've got a 670k tarball waiting to be SCP/FTP/Emailed or whatever. Includes binaries.

ImageViewer 0.1 Feature list:
- Opens most normal image types except .GIF (per the picture control's limitations).
- The image is stretched to match the size of the window.

What's an Anti-Quickie? It's the reverse of a quickie. Instead of providing useless factoids, it's designed to draw useless factoids.

CLX! I've been developing with Borland Kylix, and I have some weird problems, like it won't compile due to something like TForm Not Found. Why?
Martian Death Flu! I had a horrible diesase recently. The severity of it changes from hour to hour, but syntoms have included: headache, eye pain, coughing, runny nose, chills, fever, and sinus pain. What is it?
Slashdot Journal! What's up with it? Why can't I use all the different topic icons?
Sluggy Freelance! It's a great comic strip! http://www.sluggy.com . Some of the more recent series are either (a) unfunny or (b) way too sophisiticated for the average American. .bash_unified! I'm expermenting with a way to reduce the number of files. So I created a file called .bash_unified and linked .bashrc, .bash_profile, etc. to it. Works great! Anyone heard of any similar projects?

That's all the Anti-Quickies we have for today, folks! Got some? Comment below!

People, I'll admit it firsthand. I thought that Kylix was a C++/C IDE. It's not. It's CLX, a programming language I've never heard of. Now I'm confused. I had about 5 minutes experence with TurboPASCAL 3, but other than that... nothing. Could anyone point me towards a good CLX tutorial? Free or non-free, I downloaded all 30MB of Kylix, and I'm going to use it!

UPDATE Jan 19 20:50: Whoo! Thanks, fm6, for the link. I'm learning a bit of Objective Pascal now, and I can safely say that Kylix is very easy to learn apps with. 1 minute with a Objective Pascal tutorial, and about 30 seconds of experementation, and I already have an application (a simple one, but nonetheless...)! How's that for "rapid-development"?

For some reason, Mozilla has ceased to load new images $!#%^! Anyone else have this happen to them? It's really aggrivating. Ah well, maybe it'll be fixed in the next version.

Recently, I've more or less abandoned my old favorite WindowMaker in favor of GNOME. But I decided to do a fair comparison of three desktops/window managers, in order to see if I'm right. All ratings out of 10.

GNOME 1.4/Sawfish
Desktop: Looks Nice! Nautilius does a good job of making it very intuative. 8
Window Borders: I think that the default Window Borders need help. Windows clone #392439... NEXT! But you can customise the borders, however, that's a bit confusing.4
Speed: Mixed. Loading is rather slow, but once you actually have it up and running, it's fine. 6
App Launch: The panel is nice, and so is the desktop. Flexible. 7
"Feel": GNOME feels very nice. I happen to love the appearance of GTK+. 9
Stability: Some clipping problems when resizing complex windows (Mozilla), but overall pretty good. 7
Overall: It's nice, if a little over-built. 8

Window Maker
Desktop: As simple as they come. Clean, fast, efficient. 7
Window Borders: No... Maximize... Button! GRRRR! 4
Speed: This is one of the single fastest WMs I've ever seen. 8
App Launch: You have a limited number of "dock spaces" or you can use the menu. If you want to use the nifty clip, you're out of luck, because the apps there are not omnipotent throughout the desktops. It's cumbersome. 5
"Feel": Smooth as butter. Sometimes, the illusion is broken by various little inconsitancies, such as the way the dock spaces shade. 7
Stability: It is beta. Keep reminding yourself of that. Keys "lock", it crashes for apparent reason, and not everything works right. 3
Overall: Very Minimalist and smooth. I'll come back to it once it's version 1.0. 7

KDE 2
Desktop: Lacks beautiful, resizable icons of GNOME, cleaness of WMaker. 6
Speed: Slow. Everything about it is slow. It takes 1 minute to load, apps are slow. I blame QT. 3
Window Borders: I think I'm going to staple myself to death. KDE 1 had nice, clean, customizable window borders. KDE 2 is a shiriveled mess. Yes, there are "skins", but it's not the same.4
App Launch: More or less the same as GNOME. 7
"Feel": Nasty. QT looks horrible on my system, the fonts with the RENDER extenstion look wrong and oversized, as well as ugly. Without RENDER, the fonts are chopped up. The whole thing feels like you've been hit on the head. 2
Stability: As solid as water. It crashes (not some weird bug, CRASHES) apps all the time, and non-KDE apps as well as KDE apps. 4
Overall: Needs work. And I hate QT. 4

These ratings probably aren't that accurate. I would have included more reviews, but then this journal would have been REALLY long.

Even now, gcc is churning through thousands of lines of code to bring me a brand new kernel. I untarred the file, and typed make config, make dep, and make bzImage. I, frankly, don't understand what's so hard about it. Sure, it takes a while, but that can be expected. The Slashdot article Should Aunt Tillie Build Her Own Kernels?, I feel, is totally unwarrented. It's already so simple that I think it absurd. This is my first kernel compile, build from downloaded source (2.4.17).

If it is so hard, why does everyone worry about it? It seems easy enough...

UPDATE Jan 17 19:57: Good god, Lilo doesn't want to boot it 'cause the kernel file is too large! What's the maximum size for a kernel? And that is really silly limitation!