V.T. Eric Layton Posted June 8, 2017 Posted June 8, 2017 Heck... I'd like to just get around to seeing more of this one. 2 Quote
raymac46 Posted June 8, 2017 Posted June 8, 2017 Try a Baltic Cruise if you have the time some day. Our first cruise ever was in 2006. England, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Germany, Denmark. That got quite a few off my bucket list. Or a Mediterranean Cruise: Spain, France, Italy, Greece,Turkey, Greek Islands. I had to wait till I retired though. Never had enough vacation time to do this stuff when I was working. 2 Quote
abarbarian Posted June 8, 2017 Author Posted June 8, 2017 Well if any of you make it over the pond yer welcome to rest yer weary bones at my pad. Tea and scones will be provided. 2 Quote
V.T. Eric Layton Posted June 8, 2017 Posted June 8, 2017 Well, I'm already retired (sans income). I'll have to wait on that big lottery jackpot. 2 Quote
abarbarian Posted June 9, 2017 Author Posted June 9, 2017 (edited) Well, I'm already retired (sans income). I'll have to wait on that big lottery jackpot. As are most of us. Never mind here is a glimpse of an english garden for you. The Pciture is of some ornamental onions I grew up in Cumbria luckily they survived the move and have flowered down here in Wales. Enjoy The Window Maker theme I made up by recycling everything from another theme and using my own background. The bokeh effect for the background was achieved by using a thirty year old manual telephoto lens on my Pentax K30.The title bars could have been a tad darker green but I do not have the time to fine tune at the moment. I call this theme Purple Balls. Edited June 9, 2017 by abarbarian 1 Quote
abarbarian Posted June 9, 2017 Author Posted June 9, 2017 Looks lovely. I like the purple ball. I love purple balls too. Mind you I have not had any for quite some time now Quote
securitybreach Posted June 9, 2017 Posted June 9, 2017 Looks lovely. I like the purple ball. I love purple balls too. Mind you I have not had any for quite some time now Well I mean't the flower but right... Quote
V.T. Eric Layton Posted June 10, 2017 Posted June 10, 2017 I have some purple balls. They're in the box with my Christmas tree decorations. I didn't put a tree up this past year, though. 2 Quote
abarbarian Posted June 10, 2017 Author Posted June 10, 2017 I have some purple balls. They're in the box with my Christmas tree decorations. I didn't put a tree up this past year, though. Na na I can beat that. I did not put decorations this year or last year. Apart from me reindeer keyhole coverer. Quote
abarbarian Posted June 10, 2017 Author Posted June 10, 2017 (edited) Scrooge! Edited June 10, 2017 by abarbarian 1 Quote
V.T. Eric Layton Posted June 10, 2017 Posted June 10, 2017 Albert Finney was good, but my favorite version of Dickens' A Christmas Story is the American version with George C. Scott as Scrooge. Quote
abarbarian Posted June 11, 2017 Author Posted June 11, 2017 Albert Finney was good, but my favorite version of Dickens' A Christmas Story is the American version with George C. Scott as Scrooge. Scott was a better Scrouge, not that Finney was bad. Personally I find that the original movie is always the best with the odd remake being on a parr and the very odd one being better. Quote
V.T. Eric Layton Posted June 11, 2017 Posted June 11, 2017 The main difference between the Finney version and the Scott version was that Finney's was more of a light-hearted musical. Scott's was darker and more serious... closer to the actual Dickens' story. Quote
abarbarian Posted June 12, 2017 Author Posted June 12, 2017 The main difference between the Finney version and the Scott version was that Finney's was more of a light-hearted musical. Scott's was darker and more serious... closer to the actual Dickens' story. Never seen the Scott version but if you want "darker and more serious" the 1951 version with Aliastair Sim is great, There is a colourised version but the b+w is better in my opinion. The original 1913/35 version is well worth a looksee too. An if you ever get to the uk then this would be a nice addition to the bucket list of places to visit, Quote
V.T. Eric Layton Posted June 12, 2017 Posted June 12, 2017 Yes, I've seen that B&W Sim version. It was good, too. Quote
raymac46 Posted June 13, 2017 Posted June 13, 2017 Count me in as a fan of the 1951 version but not in color. It just doesn't look right to me. And for sheer mayhem nothing can beat "Scrooged" from 1988 with Bill Murray. Quote
abarbarian Posted June 17, 2017 Author Posted June 17, 2017 Animated wallpaper project. So I had a tad more fun with the old Window Maker. I wanted to see if I could have a Gif running as my wallpaper that would allow me to use the desktop as normal. Here is my first try, https://www.dropbox....sicle.mkv?dl=0 seems that folk thought the result was a tad unsettling. I can not see why. The result was not quite perfect so I had a think and came up with a slightly better solution. Here is the result, https://www.dropbox....ytest.mkv?dl=0 A much better outcome and possibly a better (more relaxing) image. Still not perfected the technique as while the gif background survives me restarting Window Maker from its drop down menu option, it does not survive exiting and restarting. I am positive that I can accomplish this though with some experimentation and fiddling of the Window Maker startup file. Also whilst I have managed to resize the gif I found it is not a perfect fit, this hurdle I think I could overcome. I may spend my time looking at creating my own full size gif, it would be nice to use one of my own pictures and I may be able to create one that uses a few less cpu cycles too. We'll have to see. Enjoy Ooooooooooooo ain't linux fun. Quote
abarbarian Posted June 17, 2017 Author Posted June 17, 2017 (edited) Animated desktop project. Ok I have done some more testing and have almost got things sorted. Resizing gifs is difficult if you want to get the exact size and I have been using ImageMagick with some sucess. Here is a third tryout. I chose the subject as it occurred to me that folk might have forgotten how to, https://www.dropbox....etest.mkv?dl=0 In this last effort below I have nearly got the gif size correct but there is a thin line at the bottom of the screen. This is not a big deal as I can cover it with icons. If you follow the link, you will need a little patience as the full effect takes a second or two to reveal itself. Below is a screenshot, static of course Making the animated wallpaper have persistence to survive a reboot was fairly trivial and I now have a full screen (gif needs a tad more tweaking) animated wallpaper appearing when I switch on the pc. This gives me with a fully functional desktop which with the gif chosen uses about the same cpu as running FireFox with one tab open. I can close the xtrem running the wallpaper and I get a static screen from where the animation stops, this uses slightly less cpu. from there it is one click to refresh Window Maker and this drops me back to a normal themed desktop which uses even less cpu. So I can have the best of both worlds with just a click or two. Here is the final offering in the test series. (warning:this can be unsettling for those of a nervous disposition) https://www.dropbox....estest.mkv?dl=0 Enjoy. P.S. I am hoping to make a vokoscreen tutorial for this project. I need to refine the gif resizing and find me microphone first though. Long live Window Maker. Edited June 17, 2017 by abarbarian Quote
abarbarian Posted June 30, 2017 Author Posted June 30, 2017 Here is a site with some themes that still work today. I tried out Rivendell and Tree beard. http://members.home.nl/avanriessen/themes/ More themes here but I have not tested any of them, http://lonelymachines.org/windowmaker-themes/ Raising the dead inch by inch. Long live Window Maker ;-) 1 Quote
abarbarian Posted July 31, 2017 Author Posted July 31, 2017 TIP - Shutdown pc There are several ways to shutdown your pc when using Window Maker. You can close Window Maker from the menu and power off via the command line. You can use a dock-app like "wmshutdown" available for Arch at the AUR. This is quite neat as you shutdown from within Window maker. https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/wmshutdown/ On an Arch system you can use the middle click feature available on icons on the dock utilising systemd. If you have the pc set up with polkit configured you can simply add " systemctl poweroff " to the middle click box on any icon. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/allow_users_to_shutdown One thing to watch out for if using the above is that Window Maker by default will not let you use the middle click feature if the icon is already used by a running program. When I used this method I added the shutdown command to my keepassxc icon as I always close that program before powering down. There is a way to utilise the middle click feature even if the icon is used by a running program I will include that information in another tip at some time. I am sure that there must be more ways to shutdown or re-boot your pc from WIndow Maker so if anyone has any other method maybe they would be kind enough to share here. Enjoy. Quote
abarbarian Posted August 12, 2017 Author Posted August 12, 2017 (edited) TIP -- Change Docked Icon Behaviour This no longer works for TKremind in 2022 but may work for other programs. There is another TIP for TKremind see the list in the first post for the link. Window Maker has a few quirks in its behaviour. If you add a program icon to the dock and change the programs default icon to one of your own when you open the program the dock icon changes back to the default icon for the program. Close the program and you get your own chosen icon back. Also when you minimise the program you get the default icon showing rather than your own. This can be useful as you can keep track off all opened programs. However I like my icons to look the way I have set them up all the time. After all I spent some time tracking down groovy icons and I want to see them displayed all the time. I'll show you how to do this with REMIND. Remind is a command line program but does have a GUI and the program is called TKRemind which seems to behave a little differently to some other programs I have tried. This means there is one little step at the beginning of the guide to follow that you would normally not need. Open tkremind from the RUN box and miniaturise. http://imgur.com/LnVohW5.jpg I get a generic icon and a generic mini window in the holding area, they are the two on the bottom right. http://imgur.com/McamKPm.jpg With most programs you would get a default icon showing straight away when you open one up from the RUN box and when you docked the icon you would not see a pop up box. Drag the icon to the dock and a pop up opens. Complete instruction and close ,you will see that the icon has changed from a generic to the TKRemind issued one. http://imgur.com/iRYuWKS.jpg Right click icon on dock, tick LOCK box , and also START WITH WINDOW MAKER box if required. http://imgur.com/BG2M7Ch.jpg Open the miniaturised TKRemind > right click title bar and choose ATTRIBUTES > ADVANCED OPTIONS tick EMULATE APPLICATION ICON. http://imgur.com/igxBWko.jpg ICON AND INITIAL WORKSPACE tick IGNORE CLIENT SUPPLIED ICON , choose an icon image OK > SAVE then APPLY. http://imgur.com/zw2kv38.jpg Miniaturise TKRemind > you should see the new icon graphic both in the dock and on the miniaturised icon. Re-start Window Maker from the menu just to see if the changes stay effective. Enjoy. Long Live Window Maker. Edited July 18, 2022 by abarbarian 1 Quote
abarbarian Posted August 12, 2017 Author Posted August 12, 2017 (edited) TIP -- Manual Menu Entry I am still finding out how Window Maker does things so there may be other ways to accomplish this task. For this exercise I am using TKRemind. I normally use icons or the RUN feature and do not bother with the menu but as I am training to be a Window Maker ninja I thought I should be familiar with every facet of this wonderful program. Open WPrefs > Applications Menu Definition > add RUN PROGRAM to the correct applications menu > I used EDITORS > follow instructions ie: add "tkremind" in the white box PROGRAM TO RUN > SAVE. Open your file manager and find > GNUstep > Defaults > then open WMRootMenu > I used EDITORS so find the entry RUN PROGRAM and alter it to TKreind > SAVE and CLOSE. Now open the MENU and you will see the entry 'Run Program' has changed to 'TKremind'. Click on this to open the program just to check that it works. Simple enough ain't it. Enjoy. Long Live Window Maker. Edited August 12, 2017 by abarbarian 1 Quote
abarbarian Posted August 12, 2017 Author Posted August 12, 2017 Wow! Nice tutorial! Ta. I wonder if any one will ever use the tips. I seem to be almost the only active user of Window Maker in the whole world. Mind you I recon other folk are using it but are too busy living a life. Just noticed I am giving away secrets of my personal life, guess I should have set TKRemind to a different date. 1 Quote
securitybreach Posted August 12, 2017 Posted August 12, 2017 Hey, at least the developer is still working on it 1 Quote
abarbarian Posted August 12, 2017 Author Posted August 12, 2017 Hey, at least the developer is still working on it I hope he is a lot younger than me an keeps his enthusiasm going for it till I pop me clogs. Quote
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