handyfloss

I reproduce here a new entry in the (pompously self named) GNU/Linux Troubleshooting subsection of the Linux Stuff section of my Home Page. The original entry can be directly accessed here.

Problem

I don’t have Mathematica installed on my PC, but I execute it remotely at a computer that does have it. However, I have found the following error when executing mathematica remotely:

xset:  bad font path element (#77), possible causes are:
    Directory does not exist or has wrong permissions
    Directory missing fonts.dir
    Incorrect font server address or syntax
xset:  bad font path element (#77), possible causes are:
    Directory does not exist or has wrong permissions
    Directory missing fonts.dir
    Incorrect font server address or syntax

It means that I don’t have some fonts installed in my computer, so I googled for the string ‘”Directory missing fonts.dir” mathematica’, and found this Wolfram Inc. support page. Read it, but don’t follow its instructions literally. Instead, do the following:

Solution

Download the corresponding tar.gz here (for GNU/Linux), which is the place referred to in the support link above, and untar it anywere. It contains a directory called Fonts/, which in turn contains AFM/, BDF/ and Type1/. You have to su to root and create the directory /usr/lib/X11/fonts/Mathematica/, and place the directories AFM/, BDF/ and Type1/ there. Actually, only BDF/ seemed necessary for me.

Next, the support page I mention above says you have to execute:

% xset fp+ /usr/lib/X11/fonts/Mathematica/Type1

and

% xset fp+ /usr/lib/X11/fonts/Mathematica/BDF

However, the first one (Type1), will faill again with the same message that caused all this trouble in the first place:

xset:  bad font path element (#77), possible causes are:
    Directory does not exist or has wrong permissions
    Directory missing fonts.dir
    Incorrect font server address or syntax

You will be at a loss, but don’t despair: actually only the latter (BDF) is needed, and it won’t give you any error. After that, the remote execution of Mathematica should work fine.

I have to say I am very fond of trying different Destop Environments and Window Managers, always looking for the “perfect” one.

So far I have given long trial periods to both KDE and GNOME, with KDE as a clear winner for me. Mind you, my impressions are back from some months (years?) ago, because at some point in time I decided I didn’t want so much bloat all around, and decided to dump KDE for a lighter DE.

After trying Fluxbox, Blackbox, WindowMaker, IceWM, Enlightenment and Xfce, I settled for the latter. It is not my intention to make any fair review of all the lot, mostly because I don’t even remember why I dumped them.

What I can say is why I am so happy with Xfce: it’s light, but looks good, has most of the configuration options I want, configurable shortcuts, good window manager, pretty menus if you want them, and it’s very modular so you can start whatever service or panel or conky widget, or adesklet, or just not do it. And a killer feature, for me: the iconbox. Sounds like a stupid little thing, but it is very handy, and looks quite good.

Now, this same feature is present in Enlightenment, so no wonder why I have given it some tries occasionally, even though I always come back to Xfce. The last such try was today, and I was just this close to switch to it, but I didn’t because of a couple of details. In the end, it’s small details that make the whole difference. First, not being able to properly resize de iconbox is a drawback. You can resize it, but if you use system icons for the minimized windows, they just don’t change size. Second, only the minimized windows appear in Enlightenment’s iconbox. Maybe one can change it, but for the life of me, I have not been able to find out how. With Xfce, it’s a breeze to make all icons, or just the minimized ones, appear in the iconbox. However, I have to admit that Enlightenment’s iconbox looks cooler :^) Third, alt-tabbing (after setting the shortcut, because it wasn’t default) only switches non-minimized windows. How lame is that! I want my good old all-window switching from Xfce!

There are also other details, like the stupid bar on the top side of the screen… the use of which I am still looking for (and how to get rid of it), and the fact that when selecting a theme, it affects both the “desktop” (menus, panels, fonts) and the “window manager” (window decorations, borders). With Xfce you can differentiate both! Sounds like another shallow rant, but actually some themes have better fonts for menus, but rather ugly window decorations, and vice versa, which makes it more difficult to find a good theme, because it has to have everything OK at the same time.

Fair is fair, and I have to admit that Enlightenment has also some nifty things, like the cool effects when minimizing, maximizing and creating windows, the fact that you can make the iconbox 100% transparent, being able to remove/change the window decorations… but they just don’t cut it.

I might come up with more tries and comments in the future. For now, I’ll just keep my beloved Xfce, at least until the incredibly long due Enligtenment 17 comes out, which could level the field.

A couple of weeks ago I sent a new to Menéame (collaborative news site in Spanish), and today I said to myself: WTF? I am running out of good ideas for blog entries (if I ever had any), so I could as well copy-paste that new here :^)

Basically, it follows the line of my first post in this blog (and a later one), dismantling stupid accusations of “vulnerabilities” of FLOSS programs (then, Firefox, now, OpenOffice.org).

Kaspersky Labs announced some time ago that OpenOffice.org was vulnerable to a malicious script attack, something they tagged as “virus”, but which is definitenly not. The answer from OOo can be read at LinuxWeeklyNews.net.

This is not to say FLOSS is devoid of bugs and vulneravilities. I only want to point out lame FUD campaigns, no doubt sponsored by commercial software companies (you know who). The only aim of these misinformation campaigns is to make the average user think that FLOSS is not so good, after all, and that, if Linux doesn’t even have this invulnerability they speak of, then, what good is it?

Now, how lame is that? Instead of putting themselves together and fixing their pathetic crap of OS, they spend their money throwing shit to the FLOSS, in the hope that both will be regarded as rubbish, instead of none.

[Update: (Nov 19, 2007) The LinuxAdvocate.org link seems to have disappeared. You can find a related analysis in PDF format at cybersource.com.au]

You can find a nice explanation, in everyday english, of what the different clauses of the Windows XP EULA (End Use License Agreement) mean at: LinuxAdvocate.org.

The original EULA can be found at the Microsoft site, and below is a comparison with the wonderful xxdiff graphical file (and directory) comparator. It proves that the EULA given at LinuxAdvocate.org is correct, because the grey text (the quoted EULA) is equal in both sides, and the only difference is the added (green) sections in the LinuxAdvocate.org side, which correspond to the explanations.

Figure 1: xxdiff of WinXP Eula (right), and LinuxAdvocate.org explanation (left). Click to enlarge

Interesting excerpts:

You agree that at any time, and at the request of content providers Microsoft may disable certain features on your computer, such as the ability to play your music or movie files.

These restrictions apply to all software that you get from Microsoft in the future. Future software may contain further restrictions.

Microsoft may cancel any service that they provide to you at any time and for any reason.

You agree that Microsoft can automatically and without your consent put new software on your computer.

Microsoft assures you that Windows XP Home will work correctly for the first 90 days. They do not assure you that Windows XP Home or any service packs or hot fixes will work correctly after this time.

Uff, follow the link above and read it yourself, because all the clauses are juicy.

Think of the kind of subjugation commercial software asks from you. Think freely. Think free. Think FLOSS!!

Today the power supply has failed again, so here goes the updated list of blackouts I have been able to compile, with comments if any:

1. 2005-Dec-13
2. 2005-Dec-21
3. 2006-May-26 (The card-based automated access to the Faculty broke down)
4. 2006-Jun-04
5. 2006-Jun-08
6. 2006-Jun-13
7. 2006-Jun-16

Summary: 7 blackouts in 184 days, or 26.3 dpb (days per blackout).

First post in the series: here

What do pharmaceutical, commercial software, film and discographic companies have in common? Well, among other things, fear to piracy. The three of them make products that are first generated at a high cost, but are afterwards trivially replicated. Actually, patents are designed with this into mind. From the Wikipedia entry for patent, one of the four main reasons for patents would be that:

[…] in many industries (especially those with high fixed costs and low marginal costs and low reverse engineering costs – pharmaceuticals and computer software being the two prototyical examples), once an invention exists and has been tested, the cost of actually turning it into a product is typically six times or more the R&D cost. Unless there is some way to prevent copies from competing at the marginal cost of production, companies will not make that productization investment.

Recently I discussed with a friend the recurrent subject of fair use of copyrighted material, and the applicability of the term “piracy” for downloading music and movies from the Internet. We stumbled upon a thorny double moral problem, because my friend would not see any moral or legal problem in downloading copyrighted material from the Internet, while at the same time a patent breach (he actually holds some drug patents) would outrage him!

Justifications for the alleged legality and morality of p2p sharing of copyrighted material abound. You can find out about them in the Justification section of the copyright infrigement entry of the Wikipedia and in the Legal controversy section of the p2p entry of the same source.

Influential bloggers also post in defense of the p2p interchange, and I will mention three Spanish ones: Enrique Dans (e.g. 9-Jun-2006, 3-Jun-2006, 1-Jun-2006), David Bravo (12-Jun-2006, 25-May-2006, 10-Apr-2006), Nacho Escolar (4-Jun-2006, 29-MAy-2006, 22-May-2006, 10-Jun-2004).

Now, one of the main mottos (to which I actually agree), is that the technology has made difussion of culture so easy, that the audiovisual industry has to change its business model, because the present one is obsolete and tyranical with the user, appart from no longer enforceable by the stablishment. Something similar happens to the commercial software industry: the rise of the much more efficient and legally, morally and practically sound, free software (the FLOSS that gives its name to this blog), makes it ridiculous to mantain the 80s and 90s proprietary software model.

However, although criticism to present market models make some of us turn to media licensed under Creative Commons (mainly music), and software licensed under the GPL and other free licenses (like the Debian GNU/Linux operating system or the web browser Firefox), some others feel that downloading copies of commercial of software (Windows, Photoshop, AutoCAD, ChemOffice…), or copyrighted material (music and movies) from p2p networks is somehow OK.

Much could be said about the morality and/or legality of this practice, but, for the sake of the argument, let’s accept it’s legal and moral. Let’s accept that sharing any audiovisual material through a p2p network is fair use, and that any attempt from the lobbies that control these materials to stop it are not only condemned to fail, but also injust.

OK, I can accept that, but… why not apply this to the pharmaceuticals?. What is the difference? A pharmaceutical company makes a big effort to discover new drugs, and then market them if approved by the corresponding autorities. The exclusive marketing of a drug, or a fair compensation when marketed by third parties, is ensured through patents. A patent, according to the Wikipedia, represents:

[…] the exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and useful or industrially applicable.

The exclusive right granted to a patentee is the right to prevent others from making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing the claimed invention. The rights given to the patentee do not include the right to make, use, or sell the invention themselves. The patentee may have to comply with other laws and regulations to make use of the claimed invention.

This is very interesting. The researcher (the musician), comes up with a new drug (a new song), and wants to get a just reward for her effort. She patents the drug (puts the song under copyright), which gives here a negative right to ban any other person from even producing the drug (performing the song) without her prior approval.

Usually the researcher (musician) is not directly able to market her invention (distribute her music), and so conveniently hands it down to someone who can, e.g. a pharmaceutical company (a discographic company). They are the ones who make the effort to put it in the market, passing the due approvals (bribing the due radio stations for advertising).

Now, when someone else wants to make use of the publicly available instructions (the publicly available p2p network) to produce the drug (to download, listen and/or perform the song) herself, the patent holder (copyright owner) has the right to prevent her from doing so. The pharmaceutical company (the discographic company) can even choose not to market the drug (the song) at all, if it is not economically advantageous for them. The patent (copyright) allows them to do so.

Now, the parallelism is absolute, and hence I can’t see the difference between the following examples:

a) A kid likes a music group, but can not afford, or does not want to pay for, their CD, so resorts to eMule to download it. Now, no-one can prosecute her, because it is legal.

b) There are thousands in Africa dying of a disease that is not mortal in the first world, because there is a (patented) drug that can cure it. Unfortunately, the Africans of this example, can’t afford the price the pharmaceuticals charge… so tough luck. Now, the Red Cross, or even an African individual, downloads the “recipe” for the drug from the Internet, and starts producing it and giving it away for free. Is it prosecutable?

What is the difference between a) and b)? If the drug could be put online, and downloaded as a piece of music or video, would it be any different? How come the latest Hollywood blockbuster, or MTV hit, are of public interest and hence should be publicly and freely available, regardless of the wishes of the lobbies behind its production, and the drugs that can potentially save millions are not?

For me, that’s a non sequitur.

Yesterday I watched the Argentinian movie Tiempo de valientes, and I have to say it is a superb movie.

Like many Argentinian movies, it tells the story of everyday people whose life goes through tough times, but at the same time the story is full of humour. No wonder it is like that, since the Argentinian real life is much like that, with a brittle economy since the corralito in 2002, but with humorous and optimistic citizens, nontheless.

The movie Tiempo de valientes, however, is not a tragic comedy, but an action comedy. The main characters are a policeman in need of psychologycal aid, and the psychologist who assists him. As the movie moves on, the latter becomes more and more involved in the professional affairs of the former, with interesting results. It portrays the Argentinian society also in the fact that the economic problems make corruption abound, specially within the police, but still some honest people save the day with their good practices.

Highly recommendable movie. Go ahead and enjoy it!

Today the power supply failed twice within a couple of minutes, and it just fed me up. I don’t know if our supplying company (Iberdrola) was the culprit or not. Most likely it was, as it has definitely been in the past.

I am presently a member of Prof. J.M. Ugalde‘s research group, in the Chemistry Faculty of the Donostia Campus of the UPV-EHU (University of the Basque Country), and thus the reader must realize that the blackouts I’ll enumerate have affected several Faculties in the University Campus, as well as the Donostia Internatinal Physics Center (DIPC), a first-class research center located nearby. The latter has suffered plenty computer problems (hard disks, power supplies and motherboards breaking down) due to the numerous blackouts. Needless to say, so has our Computational Chemistry group.

I would like to highlight the facts that:

• The blackouts are innacceptably frequent. We live, allegedly, in the first world.
• Each blackout, each interrupted computer activity, each fried down computer… represents a kick in the groin for the research activities. The irresponsible ways of Iberdrola are effectively handicapping the progress in the Basque Country. Yes, as simple as that.

Without further ado, here goes the list of blackouts I have been able to compile, with comments if any:

1. 2005-Dec-13
2. 2005-Dec-21
3. 2006-May-26 (The card-based automated access to the Faculty broke down)
4. 2006-Jun-04
5. 2006-Jun-08
6. 2006-Jun-13

Summary: 6 blackouts in 181 days, or 30.2 dpb (days per blackout). How much is acceptable? 100 dpb, maybe? 365 dpb (one a year)? Certainly one a month is not.

OK, I wanted to watch Jet Li’s Fearless (Sin miedo), but I was late for it, so I dumped it for What the bleep do we know!? (¿¡Y tú qué sabes!?). In my defense, I’ll say that the other options where X-Men III and Crash, which I had already watched and commented here.

Everything was odd from the start. First off, the ticket clerk made me repeat the title of the movie. I thought that he hadn’t understood it the first time I’d said it, but retrospectively I wonder whether his “Sorry, what movie?” wasn’t an exclamation of disbelief.

I then entered the theater room, just to find out that I was the only one there. Once the movie started, a young couple came in too, making a grand total of 3 people.

If you want a short comment of the movie, here you are: For God’s sake, never ever watch it!

The long story: the movie is a blend of a fiction story and some documentary-like interviews and voice-over comments. It comprises three stages: in the first one, a pseudo-scientific discussion of Quantum Physics is given, strongly focused in the state superposition theory (that there are infinite “realities” happening at the same time, and we see a “sum” of all of them. The view of the movie is that we see “one” of them), and the effect of the observer in the observed (Is reality there when we don’t look?). They take it to stupid limits, like implying that we create the reality (and can therefore twist it at our will), because the reality doesn’t exist independently from the observer. I am finishing a Ph.D. in Quantum Chemistry myself, and trust me: the quantum theory doesn’t say that.

The second part of the movie is devoted to explaining the molecular chemistry behind the feelings and the way the brain works. This part was quite interesting, and, from what I know as a Bc.S. chemist, mainly correct (Disclaimer: I am not a biologist).

The third part was a presentation of the conclusions “based on” the “scientific evidence” presented in the first two sections, which mainly consisted on some New Age sect ideas (go to “Beliefs” in the preceding link), chiefly the belief that consciousness creates the reality, a diffuse idea of God (instead of its denial), spirituality above all, and ad hoc inclusion of scientific theories into that spirituality.

I find it sad to make such a max-mix of science and pseudo-science to justify funny ideas dope smokers come up with, but… that’s New Age for you.

[Last reviewed 12-Feb-2007]

I have read at menéame (Spanish) about a Windows Vista review, and I have decided to comment about it here. The original review (in English) here.

The first thing one notices is the blatant copy of many MacOS (as usual) and FLOSS project (Linux and Firefox) features.

1) The Aero User Interface allows for window transparency. Wow, I’d be hard pressed to name a Linux desktop environment that couldn’t do it long ago.

2) You can Alt-Tab (Win-Tab, really) between open windows, having them appear in 3D. This is nice, but similar effects are obtained with 3D-desktop for Linux (only for desktop switching, not window switching), and now with XGL, which I expect to be fully functional much sooner than the Vista release date (mark my words).

3) The desktop supports applets, that, in the long standing Microsoft custom of reinventing the wheel, and then renaming it to pretend it’s something new, they call “Gadgets”. Such gadgets would be things like calendars, weather forecast indicators, clocks… Such things have been long present in Linux with SuperKaramba, gDesklets, and adesklets.

4) IE7 can now read RSS, and supports tabbed browsing. Again, Firefox supported it long ago.

5) IE7 now supports international URLs, such as www.müller.de. Firefox, of course, already supports them. Moreover, the URL display is not correct in IE7, whereas it is in Firefox (see images below):

Figure 1: Internet Explorer 7

Figure 2: Firefox 1.5.0.3

6) IE7 is said to come with anti-phising settings. Firefox already had extension for that, namely Google safebrowsing, Personal Anti-Phising Sidebar, FirePhish Anti-Phishing Extension or TrustWatch Search Extension by GeoTrust.

7) IE7 has a “MSN search” box next to the URL box (IE6 has it too?), but now it permits to add other search engines. Firefox has had it for ages:

Figure 3: Internet Explorer 7

Figure 4: Firefox 1.5.0.3