Stellenbosch Ubuntu Hour Report Back
A few days ago I mentioned Ubuntu Hour.Well we put some details and a pic on our wiki. All in all I think it was good start, I got to start my morning off with a decent cup of coffee that I didn’t have to make my self. Even though it was small I think we showed off Ubuntu well with T-Shirts, Stickers and 2 tables with 3 laptops powered by Ubuntu.
I know the timing isn’t great for work people (9am – 10am) so maybe we can think about switching it around or have another one at a pub after work for some beers? One of the main reasons for this time is the idea of starting something like this is to try make it fit into your routine not change your routine to fit it since this makes it easier to keep up with it in the long run.
Community Is More Then Just Numbers
Hopefully this gets me back into the whole blogging thing.
I have been meaning to write this for some time but oddly enough real world requires time and effort as well. We don’t often realise that Ubuntu success isn’t as much because it is a great distro but rather it is a great community.
Although this applies to most groups with in Ubuntu I would like to use this post to direct my thanks at Ubuntu-ZA. Over the last few weeks we have noticed an uptake in the number of users that pop into our irc channel #ubuntu-za or on the mailing list with issues we might have found simple or mundane but you guys have been there in full force to help out, educate, enlighten and enrich their lifes for the better.
One such case deserves special mention Kilos. He came into #ubuntu-za as a complete new user to Ubuntu. He was a Windows man before. He mentions on his blog one particular case where he was trying to mount a Floppy drive no one in #ubuntu-za had even used a floppy drive in years and yet for hours people offered help and guidance talking him through it.
I don’t want this to sound one sided on the contrary, Kilos has put far far more effort into learning then we as a team have given back. I just felt it was necessary to point this out for references. It truly amazes me how one can learn things if one puts the effort in.
Any how I am rambling I just feel it prudent to share his blog, to think that ubunu-za could have such an impact one some ones life amazes me.
Stellenbosch Ubuntu Hour
Today I was presently surprised to see a mail from Maia. She had set up and gotten started on Ubuntu-za’s first Ubuntu Hour!! Can some one say Awesome?
Of course when first reading her email I thought what no internet lets move it to the University Library, clearly not the point of Ubuntu hour which I was pointed out to by Anthony Hook so thanks 
Anthony I hope you don’t mind but I paraphrased same of your points and added them to the Wiki so that others don’t make the same mistake I did.
My Weechat Setup
I have been using the devel version of Weechat since about march 2009 because of a exploit in 0.2.6 (Which has been fixed in the repo’s from 0.2.6.1).
Why would I carry on using the devel version even if the security issue has been patched?
Simple 0.3.0 isn’t in any released stable Ubuntu repository yet also I like to help out testing/debugging/bug reporting where I can.
Why Weechat over some other CLI client like Irssi?
It started off as a simple I preferred Weechat’s config layout and ease of use and sane default configurations. Also the support from the Weechat community is astounding. People like xt and Flashcode have ported the majority of irssi scripts just to help out people transitioning from Irssi to Weechat. On that note the new changes in weechat’s API make almost every thing customisable and scriptable. I do in fact still still make use of Irssi as a bouncer still until weechat’s relay plugin is stable enough. Hopefully this will be finished soon.
How scriptable is Weechat?
Weechat provides bindings for Python, Ruby(devel version even supports ruby 1.9 now), tcl, Perl, and of course C. Weechat has a very extensive API to plugin to almost every aspect of the Weechat functionality.
Is Weechat available in my language
Weechat supports Internationalization so even if it currently isn’t available feel free to translate it into your own language.
My Favourite scripts/features
First and foremost is weeget this is weechats script manager/updater. Once installed you are able to install/update any other script including its self by simply doing /weeget install $scritpname.
- iset – Allows a simple interface to edit/search for configurations
- weeget – see above.
- buffer_autoclose – basically closes inactive private buffers after a specific period, helps to keep things clean and neat.
- go – Allows for hot jumping to buffers
- screen_away – Script that sets your away status based on whether weechat’s screen is attached or not.
- shell – Allows simple commands to be executed from within weechat.
- urlgrab – Script that helps manage the annoyances of long urls that would normally be unclickable
- aspell – This is a plugin not a script! This highlights spelling mistakes on your input buffers so you can see quickly for those minor typo’s
Tips and Tricks
- Add the alias smart filter. Helps to hide useless info like joins and parts from inactive members of large channels ie #ubuntu-meeting
- Use weechat’s remote access.
- Read the FAQ it contains lots of useful information.
Hope this has been of some help to others.
Blackberry Development on Linux
Dear Blackberry.
Would you please stop packaging your RIM development platform (That is written in java and runs perfectly well on Linux) in .exe format that does funky checks and api calls that fails to run in wine. Thanksbye.
On serious note I see many forum posts “Can I install this on Linux” to which all reply “No sorry you can’t” Ye you can install it on Linux but you can copy the installed files over to Linux go figure.
I would go into more details but seriously all you need is a windows box to install the files and copy them over
Also if you would like to install your applications using Linux. Take a look at barry-utils you will need at least 0.15 since bjavaloader was only included in this release. Debian has this version and there is a bug on launchpad requesting an update at least for lucid.