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Ubuntu 11.10

maurizio — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:26:50 +0000

I am now using the newest Ubuntu, 11.10.
I think we should all donate money to buy Mr. Shuttleworth an Apple
computer (a Mac, for those who don’t understand what an Apple computer
is :) ).
I really don’t understand why Ubuntu decided to move to Apple’s view
of an user interface. I’m not against it. I’m not even against Apple’s
view. What I think it’s wrong is to make compulsory such a change.
Ubuntu UI (Gnome, actually) was following a Windows-like paradigm.
Window buttons on the top right-hand side and menu inside the window
itself. Apple’s UI instead has buttons on the left-hand side and menu
at the top of the screen. The reason Apple’s menu are at the top is
the same reason Windows “Start” button is at the lower left position
(apparently Windows Vista wasn’t really there for some odd reasons).
The reason is that it creates a simple hand movement, where the user
has just to move the mouse arrow to the top of the screen. How much it
doesn’t matter, since the menu is at the top. You can move 1 meter or
10 meters and you’ll always be at the menu. This is how Apple works.
Microsoft instead think that people master the use of a mouse easily
and prefer to move it the least possible (also this is the reason
contextual menu were born, probably). Both ways works. I prefer one
over the other, but that is not the point. The point is why they
decided to change that? Is there a good reason? People have habit. If
you change the basics people will get frustrated.
Hopefully it’s possible to move back the menu to its “original” place.
You can do that by uninstalling a couple of packages. Try this on a
terminal/shell (or google “Disable Global Menu Ubuntu” )

sudo apt-get remove appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-gtk appmenu-qt

Ubuntu 11.10

maurizio — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:10:44 +0000

Back again

maurizio — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 23:54:50 +0000

Posting. I had as goal to write more just to learn how to write, then I found that it’s infinitely more interesting to develop rather than writing some (boring) post.

Every year (or month) I promised myself I’d write something. Whatever came to my mind. In fact it’s easy to see that by checking my latest few posts. Every X months I post that I should post more :(

Writing is boring. Programming is interesting. Stumbling is funny :)
That’s the reason I stopped posting. That and the fact that I now have a fulfilling job and when I come back home I’m always too tired to write. I’m not enough tired to start coding something.

I’ll share here my latest work, maybe someone find it interesting and want to improve it or help me.
My blog should have been about sharing ideas, but I thought I should have waited to have more eyeballs before I start it, otherwise I’ll lose all to the first lurker. The fact that most of the reader of this blog come to see a funny haiku does not help me..

I’m now going to write almost all my thoughts and ideas, hoping to get some feedback from someone interested in implementing or sharing views about them.

Let’s see if I can post regularly at least for a month.

Back online

maurizio — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:32:57 +0000

Back online!
Here I am, again trying to write down my thoughts on a blog. I missed
it a bit. Writing is a good exercise in ordering thoughts and ideas. I
have lots of thoughts and ideas running on my mind; what I really
miss(ed) is the force to write them down.

Last time I was writing on my blog I was basically unemployed. After
I’ve found a job ( waay away from home) I stopped writing for a while.
I was too busy organizing my life and trying to figure out how to feel
less lonely here. I always had thoughts on my mind, some I would have
loved to share, some not. What I usually had on my mind where great
ideas, at least that’s what they seemed to me, but too big or
cumbersome to be done by myself alone. Even now I have some big thing
I’d like to develop.

ooh. it’s very hard to order thoughts on a piece of (virtual) paper. I
should start again to write more often.