K3B with Sudo
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For anyone who’s using KDE 3.2 and has had problems with K3B (specifically cdrecord or similar failing because it didn’t have the right permissions…) I discovered a post to a mailing list that got my issues sorted out.
Apparently making cdrecord et al suid isn’t enough – you need to sudo properly, so what I did was this:
Edit /etc/sudoers and add a the following:
myusername myhost = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/cdrecord
myusername myhost = NOPASSWD: /opt/kde3/bin/k3b
Obviously (I hope!) you need to replace “myusername” with your own username and “myhost” with the name of your machine (and make sure the paths match your own installation – I’m on SuSe 9.1). Finally, edit your menu, and in the entry that loads K3B, change the target from “k3b” to “sudo k3b”.
And Bob’s yer wossname….
Family Time
We’re back from Phillip Island (for all of 10 minutes) – and it rocked! It was a lot of fun, and B had a ball. Our first family holiday, mini though it was, was definitely a success. The penguins performed and we got to see a bunch of them up very close as they stood near their burrows calling their mates, so B thought it was very cool. I’d forgotten how funny they looked trying to march out of the water as the waves keep sweeping them up – one made several attempts then finally got out, only to decide he couldn’t be bothered walking the rest of the way up the beach so he darted back into the surf to wait till it carried him further 
The little apartment we stayed in was nice, although the big shower didn’t work which was disappointing although the small one in the bath worked ok, and for some inane reason the alarm clock they had there went off at midnight! Apart from that it was cool, and B loved the place. This morning we had a nice relaxed breakfast of mini cereal boxes, then cruised back out to the penguin center to go to the souvenir shop. B got a nice fluffy penguin, and I picked up an octopus that looked like it was made to sit on my monitor at work hehe. I was even encouraged to get it! This convinced me that R’s avid denial of my purchasing a shrek doll is definitely a conspiracy….
After the souvenirs were stashed away we went down The Nobbies and Seal Rocks. It was lovely down there – very very windy so we got all rugged up with scarves and such, and B got all buttoned into his parka which looked very cute. We wandered about, and I took photos of the rocks – looked a lot like home, surprisingly enough. I think the cold had something to do with that as well – I was enjoying it. We looked through the telescopes at the seals out on the rocks – 2 dollars a pop I might add! It wasn’t too long ago those things cost 20 cents… There’s a big stretch of boardwalks that loops around the edge of the island, so we wandered along that taking more photos and pointing things out to the little one. At one stage we propped him up standing on a bench and let him hold the camera while he made half a dozen hilariously abortive attempts at taking our photo. Eventually he got one however, and it came out very nicely so we’re pleased There’s also a really lovely one of B and I in our snuggly gear, which I think I’ll take to work.
After this it was back into Cowes for lunch, where we ducked into Flynns Inn. Another in a long line of ex-churches converted into pubs, this one was actually really nice and very well done – a lot of nooks and crannies and comfortable places to sit and drink. But then we discovered the best bit of all (for me at least) they were serving roast beef for lunch! I ended up being served with a traditional roast with parsnips and cauliflower cheese and all sorts – just like home. The Guinness was lovely and poured just right, and finally there was rhubarb and apple crumble with ice cream and bailey’s custard for dessert! I was in heaven…
As promised, we took B to the ice cream shop I’d visited when I went to phillip island as a child, and got ice creams (gelati for me!) after which we bundled back into the car and headed home. All in all an absolutely fantastic little break, which by the time we got home felt as though it had been much longer – so I’m nice and relaxed. I think this is something we’re going to try to do more often – and I’m planning to head back to Flynn’s every time we’re there
Bird brains
We’re off to Phillip Island this weekend to see the penguins! The little one should love it – he’s been chattering about it for ages now. I just hope it doesn’t rain while we’re sitting waiting for the little creatures to come waddling up out of the sea. It should be a lot of fun either way, and maybe we can get in a game of mini golf or a gelati at the place I went to when I was a kid. I seem to remember there being a place that had those motorised radio controlled boats – you put in a dollar and you can drive them about for a while. Think it was in the mini golf place – I’ll have to see if we can find it and B and I can race
New Trade
“Big Michael” has finished coding his blog in cold fusion – which I’m quite impressed by! My first forays into cold fusion were somewhat embarassing hehe but he’s done a nice job, and picked a new colour set as well. Go take a look see – he’s an interesting guy. [202.174.228.170]
Proud as punch
A little while ago I found out from my mother that my little brother Mark has been given an award. Not just any award either – the National Bravery award. He was given a silver medal, for breaking up a potentially lethal fight in St Albans and keeping it broken up until police arrived. I was very impressed – and quite proud of him when I heard. He got a trip up north, stayed in a swanky hotel and got limo’d to the presentation ceremony, where he was given the medal – and took mum with him.
I found out today that he’s also been nominated for a Hertsfordshire Constabulary award! That’s so cool – well done little brother
Here are a couple of links R found while googling:
…. actually I can’t find the links, but when I dig them out I’ll post them up here.
Shinyness
I have a working phone! I finally got a new mobile to replace the piece of rubbish I’ve been lugging about for ages – now I can finally receive calls and get a battery life greater than 3 minutes…
I bought the motorola V600, which is extremely shiny and nice – lotsa nice buttons and pretty lights. I’m quite impressed with the unit – it’s very nice to look at and has some great features, not least of which is the bluetooth headset that comes with it, which is very funky and has a nice blue light on it
The phone has a camera in it, and while the pics are hardly a scratch on the ones taken with my digital camera, they’re surprisingly good. As for the ring tones – i usually leave mine on something that sounds like a telephone, because then it’s different to everyone elses hehe. This time however I found one on it that I liked named “Moonlit Haze” which is an electronica theme.
Anyways, nice new phone, lotsa fun! Oh and it has prince of persia on it of all things! I’m done with nokias methinks….
Workaholics
Isn’t is interesting how society comes full circle time and time again. It used to be we sent the men out on the boats or down the mines, working their guts out to feed their family, and god help them if they have no children to care for them when they’re too old to work.
We went through a period of congratulating ourselves that this was no longer the case – we work 9 to 5, an easy life, home on the weekends and everybody gets to retire and live happily ever after. But today it seems we’re reverting – people are forced to work harder, and longer just to bring home enough money to meet costs, and retirement, let alone early retirement is not immediately an option. I read somewhere yesterday that more than half of today’s young adults believe home ownership is an unnatainable goal (this is from a survey done within Australia). What a frightening thought.
Of course, we never did achieve that utopia – there were still people in the mines, and todays equivalents of the mines – fast food joints, milk bars, supermarkets etc. Not to say that there’s no value in those jobs – just they’re the usual suspects for students or people who have not yet embarked upon a career to end up in. But the men and women beavering away at three jobs just to pay their kids school fees don’t really make for election week TV now do they…
Cynicism – now there’s another symptom of today’s life Guilty as charged. In many ways the world is a better place now, but in many ways it’s beginning to look strangely like the dark ages – only now we have electricity so when we turn on the lights we can pretend it’s not that bad…
Don’t get me wrong, life’s great at the moment as far as I’m concerned, it was just a passing thought 
World Away Day
Wow. Wednesday saw the unveiling of the grand plan for world away day – 0845 we began with Tai Chi, which was nice. The whole day was organised with entertainment and great food – they’d hired a tv actor to MC the thing which was a great idea as he did a really good job. All in all it was a great deal of fun, and it was really cool to get so much insight into the directions the company is moving in and the interests of the people that run the show.
Not to mention that it was just a nice day away, and the entertainment was cool – plus the free drinks in the evening went down very very well Turning up to work where all 300 odd staff members are moving quietly through the building or sitting nursing their hangovers at their desks is a wonderful experience hehehe. Nice and quiet…
End of the day it was a very encouraging thing to be involved with from my point of view – it’s a first time thing for LP I’m told, but that they went to that much effort (and expense) is pretty cool.
The new desk layout at work has been sorted and it’s quite nice actually. I’m right next to Scruff and we both have heaps of desk space – it’s pretty nice to be working alongside him again. Looking forward muchly to when we actually work on something together! Now I just have to put in the formal application for the job and with luck I’ll be there permanently…
Suse 9.1
Having recently completed a full install and setup everything I need – I have to recommend SuSE 9.1 to everyone out there. It’s absolutely gorgeous to look at, and very robust – plus with the 3.6 kernel and some tweaks made in kde there are some nice little features that make life easier, like better hotplugging and automounting of usb devices, cdroms etc etc. I’m loving it so far – and for once I’ve managed to get *all* my apps installed without hassle – I have my pilot syncing again and all my bits and pieces hooked up Yay!
Hardware Blues
Bah. It’s just one thing after another – I’m technologically challenged at the moment. My main box at home died, and it took me a little while to work out why – turns out the primary hard disk I had in, which was a windows partition had failed to the point that even having it plugged into the computer would stop it from working. So that drive looks to be utterly lost – and the other was corrupted. Fortunately I managed to repair it enough with some linux tools that I could get my data off, then do a brand new install of suse 9.1. Fortunately however, 9.1 has turned out to be lovely, and fixes all the little niggly problems I had at the time – I’ve now got all my environments and apps set up successfully and it’s very stable. Plus all my new devices work! So finally I have a working desktop again – let’s just hope the damn motherboard doesn’t decide to start playing games again…