Mr Penguin

Ok, it's been a while since I flopped over to Linux, so here's an update of my penguin OS. Scripts.. I've found such joy from scripts.. haha.

First up, after what felt like for-never, I finally got my Java plugin to work on firefox.. so simple solution, yet I went one big round.. so now I-banking's possible and so's all the other Java plugin-related stuff.. Happiness No. 1.

For a while now, I've been trying to get the whole screen saver thing working.. I'm not exactly a screensaver person, I'd prefer to manually control when to turn off the monitor rather (and hey, it saves power and prolongs ur screen's life too).. so it's usually when I'm leaving the computer alone for a while, then I'll hot-key it and it'll turn off the monitor.. this was all possible in Micro$oft's Windows so I was trying to get it here on Linux (damn sure it was possible).. and after a long time trying, I finally managed to get it with the help of some self-written scripts.. Happiness No. 2.

So I thought, why stop there right? Since I'm now able to write my own console scripts, and I can even tie a hot-key to it (ie. Win + F1 = Turn off Monitor), I can now mount and unmount my FAT and NTFS partitions as and when I want by using hot-keys too! Happiness No. 3.

And then why stop there.. there's been an issue with my Power/Shutdown button since I installed Kubuntu.. by merely clicking the ShutDown icon, the computer halts, but just doesn't power down.. which really irritates me. I realised it was something to do with the native scripts inside, which I have no heart/intention to modify.. 'KISS' as they say. So instead of clicking on the Shutdown icon, I've resorted to going to the console and typing “sudo shutdown -P now” just to get it to shutdown.. So I tied another hot-key to the PowerDown script I created and waalaa! No more needing to type a whole string of commands just to get Mr Penguin to power down. Happiness No. 4.

And for some other reason, I've not been able to hibernate properly.. at least, I haven't been trying hard enough to figure out how to with the internship and stuff going on.. For the likes who use a notebook, you'd probably have figured the joys and wonders that the Hibernate function can bring.. totally saving precious time and it doesn't even require power to maintain ur data, unlike the Standby mode, and I for one, am a sucker for Hibernation.. so if you aren't using the Hibernate feature (yes, even on Windows), maybe u should start.. =)

So it was rather saddening when I realised I couldn't get the hibernate to work, which explains why I always needed to do a Shutdown as mentioned above.. well, not until today.. finally, after trying for 2 whole days.. I managed to get the hibernate function to work.. and what would u expect.. =) I wrote another script for it and tied it to yet another hotkey.. =) Happiness No. 5.

all my scripts..

So that pretty much settles almost all the outstanding issues I have with Linux/Kubuntu. Now almost all that I had on windows, I now have on linux.. *smile* and I'm happy to say that I've learnt much from this whole experience.. perhaps something I would never have to encounter/learn should I have stuck to Windows..