Modify Colors
Posts in Fun
So have you heard about the swine flu?
Old, right? By now you’ve probably learned to sense a Rick Roll coming (if you don’t know what a Rick Roll is, click here). Unfortunately, this is probably true of all your friends, too. Unless, of course, you force them see the entire Rick Roll when they login to their account. On Linux, it’s quite easy to set up.
First, install VLC. This prank could probably be pulled off with any media player, but VLC is great and very easy to use for this.
You will need to get a video file of the Rick Roll. Audio works too, but then you can’t do the full screen thing.
If you use GNOME (If you don’t use GNOME, I am sure there is a KDE equivalent.), go to System > Preferences > Sessions. Click “Add” and enter any title you want. For example: “RickRoll’d!!!!” Then enter this command:
vlc filename.mp4 –volume 500 –fullscreen
Click OK. Log out and log back in. When you login, before you even see the desktop, you will be presented with a fullscreen RickRoll. With the version of VLC in Ubuntu 8.04’s repositories, the video is very hard to get rid of. You can pretty much assume your friends will not know how to get rid of it. The best way to get rid of it is to press Ctrl + Alt + Left Arrow to switch to the next virtual desktop. Then kill VLC from the System Monitor.
I don’t think your friends will see that one coming. Even the best Rick Roll avoider would be hard pressed to escape this trick. Enjoy.
What's Your Holiday Gift to the Linux Community?
In case you forgot to put the Linux community on your list or in case you just couldn’t find anything for them, you’re in luck. There’s a last minute gift opportunity:
Here is what you have to do:
- Head over to the fourm (or IRC channel, if you must) of your favorite distribution.
- Help people out. Even if your a newbie, you can probably still help out.
- Post links to the threads (along with your username) where you helped someone out in the comments. (If you choose IRC, perhaps you could link to the log and give your name? – or just be creative.)
That’s it. There are no prizes for helping the most people out, but I might say “thank you” or something. You have until midnight on the 25th (eastern time) to post your comment. Even if you just get the chance to help one person, post it here. The idea is to see everyone’s combined effect. Happy Holidays!
Warning! Please use your judgment about the person, the computer, and the prank before attempting this. Always try whatever you plan to do on your own computer or some other safe computer before doing anything.
- Set XKill to start when the user logs in Go to System > Preferences > Sessions and add an entry with the command ‘xkill’. If you have not used xkill before, it turns your cursor into an ‘x’ (may vary by distribution) and kills the process behind the next thing you click on. Watch out with this one! Using this on unsaved work would be very bad.
- Change/remove main menu shortcuts Go to System > Preferences > Main Menu. Then either just uncheck any boxes you want or switch the command associated with the application shortcuts around. Either way, the recipient of this prank will have no idea how to get their programs to launch. (You can also set one of them to the command ‘xkill’ described above. This is probably not a good idea, though, since it is very possible that the user would accidentally click on something they shouldn’t. In short, be careful and don’t do it.)
- Replace desktop background with a picture of the desktop This trick will work on any OS, but it is still one of my favorites. Just take a screenshot of the computer’s desktop without any windows open. Then set that screenshot as their desktop background. Just move some or all of the desktop icons to another folder (be sure you don’t delete them) and watch as the computer’s user tries to click on his/her icons without any luck.
- Change the terminal’s colors Know a geek who loves to use the terminal? Open terminal and go to Edit > Profiles. Then choose to edit the default profile and mess with the colors. For maximum confusion, leave the background color, but change the text color to match it. Be careful you write down the previous settings, though, if the user has changed them.
- Free the fish When you walk by the person’s computer, simply press Alt+F2 and type in “free the fish”. This will cause a fish you swim across the desktop over and over again. You will have to do it again after every reboot, though.
- Bonus! Sometimes the simple tricks are the best. Unplug the keyboard or mouse.
As stated above, be careful and use your judgment. I do not recommend using any of these ideas unless you are absolutely sure no harm will be done.
Know of any great tricks? Share them and tell us how these tricks and others have worked for you.
(Click to enlarge.)
Let me know what you think!
(Click to enlarge.)
See if you can spot all the little side jokes. (It’s not really that hard.)
Let me know if you think it’s funny!
And South Africans Are Going to Contribute To Windows?
Recently, Jason Matusow, a Microsoft employee, made the comment that “Deep dev of the core OS is not likely to happen in South Africa today on any large scale. Students at the university still grappling with coding skills are not going to dive into the inner-working of Linux.” Of course, as has already been pointed out, the statement holds no credibility due to South Africa being the birth place of someone named Mark Shuttleworth who happens to be the founder of Ubuntu.
If that is not, however, reason enough for you to discount Jason’s statements, consider this: a person from a company who is located primarily in the US and has basically all of their top management in the US is saying that South Africans will never be able to get involved with Linux, an open-source effort which has developers, leaders, art people, marketers, etc, etc everywhere in the world.
Microsoft, making fun of you is getting too easy.
As I was playing around with OpenSuse 11 Beta 2 KDE 4, I discovered some ways not to use KDE 4’s desktop.
“TrashCan.Org”
“Look what I found in the trash”
“Look what I am putting back in the trash”
“Tux got mail”
“Firefox merchandise gone wrong”
“Tux got stuck in a terminal” or “Tux hate GUI, love terminal”
“Big Files”
“Throwing away your files”
And finally, a great way to use the new KDE 4 desktop:
Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Don’t take them too seriously. They are just for fun.
An Amusing Diagram That Shows Two Important Realities for Microsoft
Recently a diagram that depicts Microsoft’s “empire” competing or fighting its competitors, particularly open-source. The diagram (older versions), while probably mostly intended for fun, shows two important realities for Microsoft:
- Microsoft is huge. They will never just disappear overnight or over a year. If they die, it will be very slow as they gradually lose various parts of their bussiness to competitors.
- Microsoft is surrounded on all sides. They are facing serious competition almost everywhere they go. No longer are they the only player in anything.
Although these two points may seem simple, and to some extent they are, they are important. If Microsoft wants to continue to survive, it must remember that it does not have a free ride. Whether or not Microsoft will be able to beat back the competition remains to be seen, but so many (myself included) seem to think Microsoft will fall.
Leaked Release Announcement Describes Ubuntu Jabbering Jackass
I recently received a curious e-mail from Canonical. I believe this e-mail was not intended for me, but it provides a fascinating look at the future of Ubuntu, and I would like to share it with you.
Below is the e-mail:
With Intrepid Ibex now past feature-freeze it’s time to start to plan
features that are being lined up for inclusion after Ubuntu 8.10 is released in October. And so I’d like to introduce you to Jabbering Jackass, the release which is planned for April 2009, and which is likely to have the version number 9.04.With Jabbering Jackass, we will be working on creating a stubborn … I mean stable … user experience. At this stage in the process, design work is preliminary, but some parts of the plan have been worked out.
For example, we already have a desktop background* for Jackass:
(Click on the picture for a closer look at the folders.)
In addition, Jackass will feature a new Ubuntu log-in sound. The leading candidate right now is this*: WAV | FLAC | Web (Not Recomended). However this is still preliminary, as some people thought it was too annoying, especially since it loops forever.
Finally, Jackass will introduce a feature never before seen in any operating system, a cuddly cartoon donkey, something like the Microsoft Office Assistant, that will help you get work done. For example, if you make a mistake, the cuddly donkey will pop onto the screen and bellow, “You jackass!”
I believe this will be a very useful (Shutup, jackass. I really did mean to type useful.) feature that will change forever how we interact with the operating system.
Please keep this e-mail confidential until April 1 when the formal announcement will be made.
–Mark
For more information on this, see here.
Note: I think Ubuntu is one of the best if not the best Linux distro out there. I use it myself and in no way am I trying to say it is bad or imply anything bad about it.
* – Credit for the desktop background image goes to Orin Optiglo. The image is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.
* – Credit for the donkey sound goes to Acclivity. The sound is licensed under Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0.
(Alright, give me a break, finding anything to write about on Sundays in general is hard enough, let alone a holiday Sunday.)
Even wondered how Easter eggs are like open-source/Linux? (Answer: No.) Anyway, if you are really stuck for something to write about, it turns out they are quite similar. Here is why:
- There are many different types just like there are many different Linux distributions.
- They are made by many different people from many different places in the world just like open-source software is often developed by people all around the world.
- People share them and give them away.
- They are often not created for profit.
Since they are already so similar (at least if you have nothing else write about), I decided to turn some Easter eggs into Linux eggs, continuing on the Linux pumpkin idea:
