"no resources found, item cannot be added"

I kept getting this message from kmail or kpim or kontact or whatever you want to call it when I tried to create a calendar entry or to-do item. I thought it had to do with creating a new identity which I had done earlier.

Found out it was caused because my "Default Calendar" in my calendar list was unchecked. Once I checked the "Default Calendar" entry, all the errors stopped.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I'm a big proponent of actionable dialog messages. By itself, this message means nothing to an average user. Add to it "ensure that your local calendar is active" and it would have taken me like 2 seconds to fix it and I wouldn't have had to post a blog.

Windows XP x64 and Kubuntu dual boot... Remove kubuntu and prepare for pain

So I've been using Windows XP x64 and Kubuntu side by side for a while but I was sick of dual booting. So I installed Sun's VirtualBox and installed Kubuntu there. Now I don't have to reboot the PC to run Linux when I have to do Linux'y things.

Yesterday I decided to remove the Kubuntu partitions and reclaim the disk space for Windows (since I had 1g left). So I remove the partitions and reboot.

I was faced with a Grub error 22 screen and I couldn't proceed. Seems that /boot was a directory off of / and / didn't exist anymore. So Grub had no configuration data to go on.

Ohh, I remember, I thought. I'll just rewrite my MBR and that'll get rid of Grub. So I boot to the Windows XP x64 recovery console and issue the command fixmbr. Then reboot and no change - still Grub error 22.

Hmm, maybe I didn't save? Maybe I need fixboot? Maybe fixmbr then fixboot? Maybe fixboot then fixmbr? Maybe I need to specify the disk to fixmbr? Maybe I need to specify the partition? Maybe I need to specify the disk and partition? Maybe X64 doesn't use the MBR? Maybe it's a GUID thing? Maybe I'm going insane? None of it worked.

After 6 hours I was ready to simply reinstall Windows but then I thought, maybe if I reinstall Kubuntu, Grub will fix itself? So I reinstall Kubuntu, reboot and behold, a valid Grub screen with a choice to go to Windows XP that worked!

For what it's worth, I manually partitioned, creating a 1g /boot, 1 10g / and a 2g swap. So hopefully, I can reclaim the 10g and 2g, leaving Grub on /boot and configuring Grub to automatically boot to Windows XP.

Bash variable assigment modifiers

I always seem to forget this about bash variable assignment shortcuts and always have a hard time finding it.

Rather than:

if [ "" = "$var" ]; then
    $var=hello
fi

Use

var=${var:-hello}

Conversely, rather than:

if [ "" != "$var" ]; then
    $var=hello
fi

Use

var=${var:+hello}

There's also:

if [ "" = "$var" ]; then
    echo "Error, variable var must be set"
else
    b=$var
fi

And:

b=${var:?Error, variable var must be set}

There are others too, but I find these ones most useful. Check bash man page for full set.

More Progress On Bathroom

In this week's edition, we see more destruction and some progress on new drains and supplies to the third floor bathroom.

Rick is doing the bathroom.

Here are before and during photos from the first day.

Annual cayenne pepper harvest

I try to grow enough cayenne peppers each year so that when I dry and crush them, I have a few jars to give away and a few jars to keep. I've done this for the last 4 years or so, but this is the first time I've blogged it.

After the peppers turn a nice bright red, I pick them and using a big needle and some polyester thread, I make a pepper strand. Each successive harvest of the really red ones results in a new pepper strand.

Hang these strands in a dry place with lots of air exposure. These were hanging under my deck umbrella for several dry days. In a month or so, they'll be dry enough to process in a food processor, or better yet, in a blender.

I HIGHLY recommend processing them outdoors, in a place far away from other people. The fine particles will make you sneeze a lot.

When ground to the size you like, just pack them in old spice containers, or go to a kitchen supply store and buy some new spice containers.

Next, enjoy. I especially like to shake them on turkey sandwiches, popcorn, and any Italian dish. Beware, these ones are much more potent than what you get on your table at an Italian restaurant!

How to grow tomatoes

Plant seeds.
Water seeds.
When the plants get big, transplant into some nice composted material and vermiculite.
Continue to water.

Harvest.

Canning tomatoes

To can tomatoes, you'll need ripe tomatoes, basil, new canning lids and jars+bands

Wash the jars and bands in hot, soapy water and let dry upside down.
Get one large put (depth to accommodate the canning jars and one medium pot. Fill both with water.

Turn the medium pot on high heat to boil. Get one bowl of icy cold water. These will be used for blanching the skins off the tomatoes. Carefully drop 2-3 tomatoes at a time into boiling water and transfer to cold water bowl when the skin splits or after 1 minute, whichever comes first.

Peel away skin and remove stem. Place into large bowl.

Heat water in large pot. Squeezing out excess liquid from tomatoes , stuff into jars, adding basil between tomatoes (3-4 leaves per jar). Use the handle of a wooden spoon to remove excess air. Fill jar to about 1 inch from top. Thoroughly clean top of jar to assure a good seal. Place lid and band on jar loosely and continue until enough jars to fit in large pot are ready.

Place jars in hot water and wait for water to boil. Jars must be submerged. You will see air bubbles escaping from the jars. Boil for 5 minutes, assuring that no more air bubbles are escaping.

Remove jars and tighten bands. The lids should either be concave, or should go to concave as the jar cools. If it doesn't, you'll need to re-process the jars.

Linux auto updater reports packages kept back?

On several of my Linux computers recently, after performing an upgrade to the installed packages, I see a category called "Packages Kept Back" that has a few packages in it. Install upgrades nor refresh is able to install them. Perplexing.

The reason: I found a discussion that explained that the updater is intended to only update installed packages. When an update is released that requires installation of dependencies, it is "kept back" to keep the meaning of update pure.

The solution: Running sudo apt-get install on each of the packages kept back will both upgrade that package and install the dependencies, resolving the problem.

The extra-large hammer solution: Running sudo-apt-get dist-upgrade will also resolve these kept-back packages, but will upgrade your distribution as well (for example from Ubuntu 8-10 to Ubuntu 9-04).

Web client for Firebird database

I had a need to do quick sql query and wanted to do it using a web app (rather than launching a command line tool or dbVis/SQuirrelL), so I found this package:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ibwebadmin/

Which provides a web interface to firebird. I had to do the following to get it installed and running:

1. Install ibWebAdmin
   Not necessarily to your $HOME/public_html, we can set up a soft link later
   
2. Have Apache installed and running (These instructions assume Apache 2)
   
3. Have php5 installed and running and configured for Apache2
   3a. You'll also need the php5-interbase plugin (sudo apt-get install php5-interbase)
   
4. Have Apache serving up a personal directory (http://localhost/~{username})
   Edit /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/{site}, adding the following lines beneath <virtualHost>
   <IfModule mod_userdir.c>
   UserDir public_html
   <Directory "/home/{user}/public_html">
   AllowOverride Options
   </Directory>
   </IfModule>
   
5. (optional) Soft link ibWebAdmin installation in public_html
   
6. Configure ibWebAdmin to serve up databases in non-standard directories
   Edit {ibWebAdminHome}/inc/configuration.inc.php and change the ALLOWED_DIR to an empty array by commenting the default value and uncommenting the empty array declaration
   

Now go to your browser http://localhost/~{username}/ibWebAdmin

<rant>iTunes and Windows x64; WTF?</rant>

I was looking for a song that I heard while listening to Pandora on Lala, Amazon.com, Yahoo music and couldn't find it. Pandora implied that it was available for purchase on iTunes so I decided to install iTunes and see.

The first question from website, are you running Windows 64 bit operating system? Why yes, as a matter of fact, I am. Windows XP x64. So I download the 64 bit version as instructed. On installation, I get a popup error saying "Oops, you can't use this version of iTunes because you're not running Windows Vista x64". +10 aggravation points Apple!

So I download the 32 bit version. And guess what happens now... iTunes installer tells me "Oops, you shouldn't be using this version since you have a 64 bit operating system; we recommend you download and use the 64 bit version of iTunes". +10 aggravation points again!

So I ignore the warning and continue with the 32 bit version. Once it's installed I search for the track I'm interested in and ... you guessed it, it's not even on iTunes. +10 aggravation points for pandora.com.

It's all making sense now why people go postal. I wonder how many people I've taken to the edge with software I've written. If you are one of those people, please forgive me and don't do a home invasion or drive-by on me!

Things I've found in and around my 100+ year old house

Most of these items were found during remodeling and landscaping. Ordered by value

1. 1856 Nickle found in the yard while building a retaining wall on my side of the Erie Canal bed.
2. 1907 Dime found when replacing a door to a second floor porch
3. Miscellaneous blue-glass bottles found while working on retaining wall.
4. Rolex silver baby spoon
5. Postcard from 1924 advertising a boxing match at the Rochester Athletic Club (found while I was still working at the unrelated Rochester Athletic Club)
6. Rusty old horseshoe
7. Bottle of Mercurochrome.
8. Old knitting needle

Fixing rendering problems with checkbox and radio on Firefox 3 with KDE 4

I've been living with a rendering problem on Firefox 3 under KDE 4 with Kubuntu 8.10 for some time but today I decided to try to fix it.

The problem was that the checkbox, radio and sometimes buttons and input fields on web pages under Firefox 3 didn't render properly until I did a hover over them. Once I scrolled the page those widgets got hosed again until I hovered over them again.

I had tried installing latest video drivers and tweaking KDE 4 look and feel settings to no avail. After a little digging, I found that the problem isn't with KDE 4 settings, but the settings for "GTK Styles and Fonts". Access these settings under "System Settings".

The page has a radio selector for "Use my KDE style in GTK applications" that was selected. Changing this to "Use another style" and selecting "Raleigh" made this problem go away but had a negative overall effect on how Firefox looked. I was on the right path though.

A little more digging made mentions of a common GTK style called "QtCurve". I installed this via Adept, closed the System Settings window and reopened it. Now "QtCurve" appeared in my "Use Another Style" dropdown. I selected it, pressed apply, then restarted Firefox.

And it was beautiful.

It also fixed my checkbox rendering problems in Eclipse (where the right edge didn't display).

Before:


After: