Author Archives: Heath

Custom Keybindings in elementary OS

The keyboard-settings pane in Ubuntu allows custom keyboard combinations to launch applications or scripts. This feature is currently missing from elementary OS’s keyboard plug. However, with a little command line foo we can setup the keybindings without the GUI. First we need to install gconf2. It may be installed already, but in case it’s not:…

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Silencing a Phone

As someone who spends more of the work day on the phone than not, I appreciate my headset. So when the jack on my phone started acting up, I was quick to get it working again. Recently, my phone started emitting a high pitch tone whenever a headset was attached. I tried multiple headsets to…

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Word Clock: Building the Frame

I’ve started building a word clock. For the most part, I’m copying this one, but I’m hoping to include an improvement or two. Since the electronics piece is pretty straightforward, I began by building the frame the lights for each word from bleeding into the next. With the frame fully assembled, it was time to…

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Ethernet Events with Cuttlefish

TL;DR: Ethernet Events for Cuttlefish plugin This article will serve to purposes: to introduce cuttlefish and to introduce the Ethernet plugin I wrote for it. So without further adieu: Cuttlefish is an automation tool for ubuntu that allows you to setup rules for performing actions. For example: When I lock my screen, pause my music player…

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The Start of Something Sizable: Ubuntu Grid Fix

After almost a year, the Grid plugin in Unity is still broken. For the uninitiated, the grid plugin is designed to quickly place windows around the screen in a neat grid. More details here. If you follow the link to the launchpad bug and review the comments, you may find a ppa that resolves this issue, however,…

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Move Steam Library on Linux

I installed the Steam Beta on a PC with a 36GB os partition which doesn’t leave much room for games. I spent some time trying to translate windows tutorials to linux before I realized how stupidly simple the solution is. 1. By default, Steam creates a folder in your home directory named Steam. Move this…

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Synapse Tricks

After giving the Ubuntu Unity launcher its chance, I’m back to using synapse. As I was setting it up tonight I learned a couple of neat tricks. Setting the Color of the Doish Synapse Theme in Unity The default orange used in the Doish theme is atrocious. Changing the color used to be an easy…

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Laser Switch Completed

I have finished my laser switch project (all related posts here). The system works as follows: I have a laser pointer hacked into a duck hunt gun. When I pull the trigger on the gun, the laser points out from the barrel of the gun. On the wall, I have four picture frames, each with…

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