Adding Universal buttons to the Gnome panel

So, in my attempts to integrate a wiimote into the gnome desktop, I have found a way to create universal close, resize, maximise...well any button you want. It's all to do with simulating button presses.

Wiibuntu: Getting Started

Over the past few months, I have been playing with a wiimote and ubuntu.

If you've not looked into them before, wiimotes are a pretty nifty bit of kit. There basically a bluetooth mouse and are recognised by computers as Human Interface Devices (HID). But they do more than a mouse can, there is a InfraRed (IR) CCD camera, accelerometers and of course, a few buttons.

Disco Bro:Hoe Ratio?

I was getting worried that the new series of flight of the conchords wouldn't yeild many good songs. I guess things are looking up!

This Be The Verse

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
   They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
   And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
   By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
   And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
   It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
   And don't have any kids yourself.
   
  - Philip Larkin

Bored on the Bus?

You know what it's like when you're bored on the bus, you get your phone out and mess around. I did this a while ago and found myself playing with the burst function. The pictures were sitting around for a while until I was playing with mencoder, a nice video encoding tool. Anyway, It can make videos from a stack of ordered Jpeg files using the command:

mencoder "mf://*.jpg" -ovc lavc -fps XX -o XXX.avi

The X's, well, for the first two put in your desired frame rate, the others are just your desired file name.

Its not brilliant, but it give you an idea of how to get up Oxford Rd in Manchester!

Geeks Anonymous

I have a confession to make... I am a geek. I always feel better once somebody understands that about me! I have been trying to learn to program for years now. I've tried loads of different languages, with varying degrees of success. 

I started using Ubuntu Linux a couple of years ago. Now it is the main operating system on my home computer. It's nice, you can fiddle with everything, a geeks paradise. 

Anywho... after getting to grips with the whole Linux thing - A word to anyone thinking of making the switch, don't be afraid of the command line, it is your friend, and so are the people in the forums - I decided to have a crack at learning to program again. This time in the cross-platform language, Python. The reason I chose this language was well, because it looked simple and, happily, it is. When you write a program, or script if you're being pissy, it doesn't look like a spider has been tap dancing on your keyboard, it's nice and simple, just like me.

So once you have got it all up and running, I found the Python Homepage and this tutorial page to be a good place to start, you need something to program. For this, rather than working from a book, I found the Project Euler website. Here they give you maths problems that you need a computer to solve, perfect.

Alright, so now you know my geeky secret, I hope you have fun.