Xubuntu 15.04 OS / Parole Media Player

Found a flaw either in:

1. Xubuntu 15.04 OS; or

2. Parole Media Player;

when shifting cursor over black background of Parole Media Player, the cursor 'disappears.' 

Must flick mouse around until one accidentally hits on the  Parole sound adjustment button (white background).

Unpleasant 'lost' feeling & navigation hard. 

Weird.  Not sure what the problem is.

As it's free, I can live with it.  ;)

Synaptic Package Manager & Gufw

Downloading

Synaptic Package Manager

through the Ubuntu Software Centre.

"Synaptic is a graphical front-end to apt, the package management system in Ubuntu. It combines the point-and-click simplicity of the graphical user interface with the power of the apt-get command line tool.

You can install, remove, configure, or upgrade software packages, browse, sort and search the list of available software packages, manage repositories, or upgrade the whole system.

You can queue up a number of actions before you execute them. Synaptic will inform you about dependencies (additional packages required by the software package you have chosen) as well as conflicts with other packages that are already installed on your system."

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto?action=show&redirect=Synaptic

Prelude to - Next Step:

Gufw is a firewall powered by UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall).

Installation

In order to install Gufw, you must have the Universe repository enabled. To install, use Synaptic, or run from Terminal: 

sudo apt-get install gufw

As I've been too lazy to fully grasp rules of running terminal commands, I'm downloading the graphics interface firewall thingy - here.

Or, that's the plan at this stage.

But maybe this step is a waste of time, because I can't see myself writing rules for the firewall.  lol

Xubuntu 15.04 & UFW (Firewall)

Was having problems with Zorin 9.

Maybe my not knowing what I'm doing was the problem.

Display started messing up.  Lived around that.

Switching from window to window, display would be sort of jig-saw scrambled and 'bleeding through' before adjusting if you flicked screens enough or (oddly) pressed the print screen button to 'break' whatever the problem was.

The next problem:  YouTube videos and audio stopped playing.

Rather than reinstall the same OS, I chose to make a switch.

Picked Xubuntu 15.04 (April 2015 release) - here.

Loads of thought didn't go into the selection:  it was just the first I'd downloaded and burnt onto disc.

Managed to mess this up almost right away by mindlessly running a line command re the graphics driver (which I didn't need to do) ... and got a scary !warning! which freaked me.

Thought I'd try some other OS to see if I like it ... went for Linux Mint.  But that one kept dying on me before I could adjust the graphics driver.  

Reloaded Xubuntu 15.04.

It feels OK.  Don't mind how it looks.  Think I can get to like it.

Been messing around on it for maybe a couple of days or something like that, before remembering to check that the firewall's turned on.

For status check:

sudo ufw status verbose

WTF!  Firewall inactive.  Geez, you'd think developers would automate this.  But they don't.

Ran the activation command:

sudo ufw enable

Subsequent check shows:

tokyo@tokyo:~$ sudo ufw status verbose
[sudo] password for tokyo:
Status: active
Logging: on (low)
Default: deny (incoming), allow (outgoing), disabled (routed)
New profiles: skip
tokyo@tokyo:~$

No idea what it means, but UFW's working.  

UFW is 'Uncomplicated Firewall' - here.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Download Xubuntu 15.04
http://xubuntu.org/

Max Zorin - Character

"Max Zorin is a former KGB agent and industrialist from the 1985 film A View to a Kill. He is the primary villain and is played by actor Christopher Walken."

Max Zorin in A View To A Kill (1985)

This came up in conversation.  I had no idea there was a Zorin character. 

Wonder if 'Zorin' is the Russian-Irish developers' (yes, two of them - bros) real surname, or if it was selected from the James Bond film, book or whatever.

Years since I've seen James Bond movies.  Don't even remember one.

Just remember a smug guy I didn't like. 

I think I always wanted the villains to win.  lol

Like Walken (probably because he played a villain) ... but I can't remember which film of his I would have seen.

Zorin - Love/Hate Thing Happening

The problems I've had (which may not be Zorin & could be due to other reasons):

• frequent Firefox crashing - lots of open windows & playing YouTube videos may have something to do with it?

• display - major f*ck-up - the open windows 'bleed' into one another and there's almost a jigsaw effect until the buggy thing is 'broken' with multiples of back and forth clicking to switch windows; F5 / reload or hanging on the scroll button like crazy; or 

• ... a really weird option that works best:  print-screen button (yes, lots of unwanted screen capture going on ... lol), but it 'breaks' whatever is stuffing up display when switching screens.

• Discovered the print-screen remedy, as I was going to capture an image of the screen to complain to all about the garbled mess I get.

That's it for the problem side of things.

Things I'd like:

Wider scroll bar thingy, right hand side, blue.  I'm not into precision anything.  Big is good for me (but not too bit, as I find that annoying also ... lol).

Ummmm ... that would have to be a Blogger ask, I think. Maybe even Modzilla. But not Zorin. Got confused about where I was re the scroll bar, thinking I'm in Zorin when it's a Blogger scroll bar.

No, change again.  The notes program scrollbar is on the thin side like the Blogger scrollbar.  What's with narrow, minuscule scrollbars, guys? I'm basically lazy and don't like straining my hand being precise. 

Right click functionality re delete, rename etc, when I'm entering folders from avenues other than the documents option or whatever.

Eg.  If I'm about to load a photo from my computer onto somewhere else and notice that the name of the file isn't one I'm happy with and want to change, I'd like to be able to right-click and change the name, delete or move the file (as and when I see the necessity), rather than having to stop what I'm doing and access that function via the documents icon etc.

The wants aren't a huge deal seeing this is freebie software, but the wants would make it better (for me).

[ Not proof reading this - got to run.  lol ]

Cookie Consent - Script - Widget

Cookie Consent

Free and open source

 

 https://silktide.com/tools/cookie-consent/

The above cookie consent script gadget results worked when pasted into template of another blog I have happening ...

Expected this to have options, such as 'not now', 'dismiss' (or whatever), but it only has a 'yes' button.

Oh, well.  At least it's a notice.

The widget isn't taking in *this* blog template.  

Tried again and maybe wasted half an hour of fiddling around.

I'll have to make do with the lame notice I've got set up above.

Not sure what to do in long-term.  I'm not really keen to devote any more time to extensive cookie consent widget research. 

Search Box Widget - Blogger

"Add 6 Stylish Custom Search Boxes To Blogger"

http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2014/10/6-custom-search-boxes--for-blogger.html

Found this useful, as the 'in-house' Blogger search widget wasn't working for me (on another blog I have set up).

Now it works.  ;)