So I finally broke down and upgraded my laptop to Kubuntu Intrepid. Everything went great -- until I restarted, and found that my nice, neat, KDE 3.5.1 desktop had been replaced by ugly-ass KDE4. Not only did it make no attempt to import my keyboard shortcuts from KDE3, I discovered that changing the keyboard shortcuts requires you to log out and log back in. The default window decorations are ugly as sin, and even worse, the GTK integration makes all GTK apps ugly.
Edit: KDE4.2 fixes nearly all of the problems I mentioned.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Dreaming of Androids
Today I received my new HTC Dream, a.k.a. the T-Mobile G1, running Google's Android OS, and it kicks the iPhone's sorry ass.
How is it better, you ask?
1. It has more than one farking button. In fact, it has a full QWERTY keyboard.
2. It took only four taps to enable installation of "unofficial" applications. No jailbreaking needed.
3. It can run more than one goddamn app at a time.
4. I don't need to pay 99 bucks to distribute an app.
5. I don't need to send it in just to change the battery.
6. If I lose the data cable, I have a crapton of USB mini-B cables lying around that will work just as well.
And what does the iPhone have that the G1 doesn't?
1. Multitouch. Ooh, look, I can squeeze the page and it gets smaller. Big whoop.
2. A half-eaten piece of fruit stenciled on the back.
3. An aura of smugness.
iPhone fanboys, flame away.
How is it better, you ask?
1. It has more than one farking button. In fact, it has a full QWERTY keyboard.
2. It took only four taps to enable installation of "unofficial" applications. No jailbreaking needed.
3. It can run more than one goddamn app at a time.
4. I don't need to pay 99 bucks to distribute an app.
5. I don't need to send it in just to change the battery.
6. If I lose the data cable, I have a crapton of USB mini-B cables lying around that will work just as well.
And what does the iPhone have that the G1 doesn't?
1. Multitouch. Ooh, look, I can squeeze the page and it gets smaller. Big whoop.
2. A half-eaten piece of fruit stenciled on the back.
3. An aura of smugness.
iPhone fanboys, flame away.
Friday, January 09, 2009
Dammit, Google, quit changing your icon!
The purpose of a website's icon — or any icon, for that matter — is to provide a visual way to quickly find something in a list. Sometimes, the icon represents some abstract concept; in most applications, the "save" icon is a floppy disk, even though they're nearly obsolete. However, if the icon is unique, experienced users have no trouble connecting it with what it represents. I use icons exclusively for my bookmarks toolbar:
Of course, this only works when the icons don't change. Google has recently changed their icon again, just as I was getting used to the second one. Call me old-fashioned, but I happen to like the original Google icon.
I can understand changing the logo on the front page for special holidays (which seems like just about every day now), but icons shouldn't be changed just for the hell of it.