EarthTainer – my customizations

The EarthTainer is a wonderful idea, but over time I think the Rubbermaid totes in the stores will get thinner and thinner (and less and less opaque) as the corporation cuts costs; this may make my tweaks required instead of preventative steps.

1.) After the main tub has been prepared (holes drilled and such) use the landscaping fabric to make an inside curtain from the top of the tote to the bottom in a full circle (if you like the look, feel free to do it on the outside – the black will absorb the heat from the sun).
This curtain should slow the sunlight and algae growth.

2.) Put in your support bench and cover all inside surfaces with the landscape fabric – much like a fabric cup. This should make it easy to pick up the soil as a package (no digging in the fall) and may keep most of the roots out of the water.

3.) Do NOT drill a hole for the feeder tube but cut an upside down U just below the bench level – best on the side facing away from the sun to slow algae and evaporation. This stiff flap stays closed until top up time.
Random tip: drill the ends of the cut so the cut doesn’t turn into a travelling crack as the plastic gets more brittle.

I plan to use a flexible hose (that’s stored away from the sun) to top up the water. I will probably have rain water in a large bucket and use a simple syphon to move the water.

Also: the second cup-like wrapping of landscape cloth will come in handy shortly… I forgot to drill holes in the bench for drainage into the water section. Heh, oops.

Dollar Store Gardening

I’m an avid fan of dollar stores, and with good reason: the ones in my area ROCK.

Here are some of my plans for uber-cheap gardening:

1 Plastic window box (these come in 1/4 round, square or long. I prefer the long ones – they disappear fast, though.)
1 nylon scrub pad cut in 2 pieces (the ones that don’t include soap)
1 packet of nasturtium seeds
1 packet of lettuce seeds
1 packet of calendula seeds
1 kid’s watering can
1 sheet of emergency blanket (the thin reflective kind. cut into smaller pieces – this is to reflect the sun back onto the plants)
1 package of bamboo sticks (the long ones – to support climbing plants OR to hold the reflective blanket)
And if I wanted to I could buy the soil in the dollar store too, but it’s cheaper in big bags.

Assembly:
Take the window box, flip it over and gently carve the recessed O’s out for drainage.
Flip it back to right side up and place the halved scrub pad over the holes; this acts as a filter to keep the soil in.
Fill with your choice of soil
Water with kid’s watering can (if you can’t get one with a sprinkling head, place a small square of scrub pad on the surface of the soil and pour on / into it; it absorbs the force of the water.)

Let your box drain for 5 minutes and then plant the seeds.
Put the box in a WARM place until the seeds germinate – the lettuce should pop out in a day, the nasturtiums shortly behind them.

Or: keep in a dark spot to encourage root growth (a day or two), then harden off or just stick them in the window.

My only concern is that the plastic may contain something that should not be in food / has chemicals the plants will absorb.

Cure multi-page articles with Repagination and Adblock Plus

I don’t know about you, but when I see what should be a one page article spread across 6 pages in tiny chunks, it drives me nuts! Call me crazy, but I don’t want to wade through ad-saturated page after ad-saturated page just to read a simple article!

A few examples of this are:

• computerworld.com
• environmentalgraffiti.com
• ew.com
• gamesradar.com
• instructables.com
• itwirecom
• maximumpc.com
• rd.com

While Adblock Plus usually makes short work of the ads, there are also self-promoting ads on every page as well. I may be interested in these on the first page, but by the second, third and fourth pages they’re nothing but the visual equivalent of static noise.

Repagination (a Firefox add-on) stitches all of the pages together, much like taking a report and taping the pages end to end to create a large ribbon.

Add in Adblock Plus’ side kick “Element Hiding Helper” to zap the noise, and you can actually do what you set out to do – read the article!

How-to:

Requirements:

• Firefox
• Adblock Plus
• Adblock Plus – Element Hiding Helper
• Repagination (the official project doesn’t support Firefox 3, but a simple edit or alternative source will allow you to use it)

The first thing you’ll need to do is stitch the pages together:

1. Right-click on the Next link
2. Choose Re-pagination
3. Choose All
4. Wait as it loads (you should see your scroll bar shrinking and jumping up)

Then I’d recommend scrolling down to the second page, or even just the last page.

Once you’re there, you’ll want to use Adblock Plus’ Element Hiding Helper to target the areas that are not related to the article (header, footer, “you might be interested in” links, etc.)

The way I target each annoyance is:

1. Right-click on the Adblock Plus icon and choose “Select Element to Hide”
2. Move your mouse over the offender
   
3. Hit W (wider) on the keyboard until it outlines an area that affects the content
   
4. Hit N (narrow) to go back down a level
   
5. Hit B (blink) to see what removing that selection would affect.
   
6. Hit S (select) to choose that area
7. Go into the advanced editor
   

Here’s the tricky part… I, personally, don’t like the first page affected by the slimming process.

In the advanced editor,

1. scroll up the tree until you’re just under the body area,
2. choose the one that’s the ancestor of your target
   
3. then find the ancestor with the SAME name on the same level.
   

Troubleshooting:

Every once in a while Repagination inserts a frame for the next page, which foils adblock’s selection.

The easiest solution to this is to go into Adblock Plus’ Preferences, finding the rules for the site, and replacing (as an example):

instructables.com##*#container + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + *#container > DIV#sidebar

with

instructables.com##*#container ~ *#container > DIV#sidebar

The tilde (~) means “any sibling after”, and so this would target all of the “container”s after a “container” that are on the same level. It’s usuall shift + `, which is called a “back tick” and is in the very top left of most keyboards.

Personal – Keyboards don’t like milk baths

So, in the action of defending my keyboard from an avalanche of toys (brought on by my daughter’s armful of them and insistance about putting them on my desk) I knocked a cup of milk onto my keyboard.

Nothing really happened at first except a big mess, the keyboard even drained through the holes for the flipping feet. Then about 3 hours later… of all things my space bar wouldn’t work.

I get my daughter to go to sleep and fall asleep myself. I come back and my computer’s in standby mode.

Cool, I think, less power used, etc.

Yeah, except I had to restart it to get it out of standby mode (it doesn’t like my video card, it’s a known bug).

A restart later and I can’t log in. Wait, what?

Yeah, see title. Keyboard not responding at all. I couldn’t even arrow into Windows.

So I find the keyboard my daughter’s been using to pretend she can type (she can, but badly, she got me banned from chat once when the computer didn’t go into lockdown mode when the screensaver kicked on)… except….

The stupid keyboard uses the PS/2 connection, and the metal C shaped piece that surrounds the pegs is bent in. Easily fixable, but still exasperating!

But, as you can see, it’s working now.

Looks like I get to clean my usual keyboard with some rubbing alcohol (disolves milk solids, etc, pours out like water, evaporates quicker AND slightly sanitizes).

Problems with Uninstalling Google Toolbar

I’m writing this quick note from a computer I’m fixing – the previous owner had various things installed, and one of them was the Google Toolbar.

Now, I’ve always thought of Google in a positive light, but after today… there will always be that thread of frustration tainting the view.

Ok, short version: The computer had Google Toolbar installed, and I tried to uninstall it. It uninstalled fine on the Admin account, but on a different account with near admin privileges it just wouldn’t get lost!

I tried a total of 7 times (uninstall, restart, check to see if it’s there) to get rid of it and it wouldn’t get the f—- off the computer, so I went into the folder on the harddrive that holds the extensions and found the folder that held the Google Toolbar. Hit the delete key and check? Gone…. FINALLY!

Details: I tried to uninstall it from the add-ons area as well as the uninstall option hidden in the toolbar itself. Each time it promised me that it would be gone, and each time I came back it was in my face insisting I set the search engine, etc etc etc.

Extra annoyance factor: it wouldn’t go away by clicking on the close button. Google: sometimes I have better things to do than to answer your stupid questions about which search engine I want and if I want to “help” you with stuff.

KOL GM Scripts – My picks from OneTonTomato’s huge list

These are the OneTonTomato scripts I can see myself using, ymmv.

• Auto Choice(1,799)
• Bargain Hunter(2,511)
• Chat Functions(2,369)
• Familiar Hotlist(4,568)
• GeneriQueue(1,344)
• Inline Descriptions(3,835)
• Manage Prices(3,157)
• Meat Transaction Helper(2,389)
• Mind Control Device Link(2,026)
• Mind Control Device Select(1,195)
• Outfit Swapper(796)
• Price Gun(16,671)
• Pulverize Groups(6,529)
• Sell Stuff Helper(1,538)
• Sort Mall Activity(1,457)

Please note that some, but not all, are on the wiki so there may be duplicates to my previous post.

KOL GM – My picks from the KOL wiki

Louvre It Script – Keeps track and automates the louvre it puzzle

Fortune Cookie Script – which will help get semi-rares.

Pulverize Groups – sort smashables by what / how much they give.

Recipes – but it’s out of date. See previous post for an up-to-date version.

Strange Leaflet Spoiler

Mr. Script – The ultimate script

HP Colors – I can use this with my new version of my skin as it (should) let all the shades through.

Inline Descriptions – because I hate having to resize and close windows. Yes, I’m THAT lazy.

Meat Transaction Helper – helps us visual people figure out how much meat we’re dealing with (9000000 looks a lot better as 9,000,000)

Previous Adventures – because sometimes I like to REALLY backtrack.

Pulverize-Malus – somewhat unneeded because of the extra links in the top supplied by Mr. Script, but still nice to have.

Chat Functions – nothing like nickname autocomplete, eh?

Bargain Hunter – great to check that the deal is actually a deal.

Mall Helper – Because manually buying 15 things from 12 stores takes too bloody much time! NOTE: if it says it applies to every page (*), cancel and right-click on it, choose “view user script source” and then use the button at the top.

Manage Prices – great way to find the non-100-meat price.

Auto Choice – Because clicking on “Ignore the wheel” 4 times in a row really messes up my autoadventuring.

d0om’s Combat UI enhancer Gold – the previously mentioned autoadventuring.

Bang Potion Minder – very needed now due to the changes in the lair gates.

Pricegun – because a few of my friends use it and I need to add it to my KOL – Blue w Gradient – GM Tweaks style (make it blend in with the skin)

Auto Login – less typing, more playing. It gives a button to click that logs you in.

KOL GM – My picks from the forums and userscripts.org

Greasemonkey scripts on userscripts.org for KOL (some are on the wiki):
JHunz’s KOL Mall Price Sorter

JHunz’s KOL Mall search separator

JHunz’s KOL Max Price Mall Trimmer

KoL Easy Select – But I edit it so it only applies to Hangk’s as it’s the only place I can’t seem to find what I’m looking for.

AmandaKerik’s Menu for Kmail Areas (KOL) – Is it shocking that I use my own scripts?

KOL – Chat – Label Mods (20-12-2007) – I don’t use the Greasemonkey version, I use the Stylish version, but feel free to use this one.

AmandaKerik’s Colour and Label HP / MP Restorer… – another one I prefer the Stylish version over the Greasemonkey version. Note to Self: Get a shorter name for this one.

Tard’s KoL Scripts – Choice Adventure Rewards – Nice to see this one updated! I just wish she had updated the metadata so it doesn’t look at Tard’s site.

d0om Combat UI enhancer with counter based on y… – Easy way to burn turns, especially for BHH’s miniquests.

Naltrexone’s KoL Scripts – Bang Potion Minder – One less thing for me to keep track of.

Tard’s KoL Scripts – Strange Leaflet – Still works, I wonder when TPTB will add to the leaflet?

KoL Mall price highlighter – An oldie but a goodie, I’m glad I found this one!

AmandaKerik’s To Do List with Disappearing Links – I’m actually sitting on a more up-to-date version of this, I should release it, eh?

Actually, I just realized how many scripts I’m sitting on right now… menus for areas like creation areas (food, booze, items, weapons, armour, etc), as well as for map areas (I find myself very annoyed when I go into the wrong side of the tracks and what I’m looking for is on the right side… put in the tracks and make them clickable, dangit!)

Ok, those are the easily found ones on UserScripts.org, let me do a little more looking in non-wiki areas.

Ok, in the forums there’s a big thread about Greasemonkey scripts for KOL:
http://forums.kingdomofloathing.com:8080/vb/showthread.php?t=139514

Unfortunately, the guy that started it didn’t keep up with it for very long, so the new / updated scripts are sprinkled throughout it.

http://kol.cmeister2.co.uk/scripts/dcstuffies.user.js – This is what started my niche of making scripts that dump sets of… stuff… into your Display Case. Or out of it, heh.

http://kol.cmeister2.co.uk/scripts/itemquantity.user.js – After a battle you can click on an item to have it find out how many you have total.

http://kol.cmeister2.co.uk/scripts/t…pesCM2.user.js – Ahh, recipes.

Auto-DC Klaw Machine Items (KOL) – There’s one that tosses in Hilarious items, but I rarely have them.

That’s it for the forum thread, the ones that AREN’T on the wiki, that is.

A new(ish) month, a new(ish) Firefox

Yes I’ve been off of WordPress for a while… life happens.

Anyways, I’ve made it a habit to create a new profile for Firefox every month. Why? I’m easily amused? Also, it lets me take a fresh look at the things I use every day and drop those things that were cool at one point but I grew out of or just didn’t really use.

A little late into the month, and I’m creating my January profile as I type this. I created a new profile by closing down Firefox and typing into the command line / terminal the following:
firefox -ProfileManager

Yes, changing a shortcut to do the same works quite as well.

Ok, on to add-ons:

I’ve found that installing add-ons that I know I use everyday all at once (not restarting Firefox between each one) is probably the best way… it’s certainly the fastest.

First stop is the Firefox add-ons site, and I add them to my search engine list (in the top right corner).

NoScript – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722
(I minimize the add-on pop-up that says I need to restart Firefox)

Adblock Plus – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865
Adblock Plus – Element Hiding Helper – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4364

CookieSafe Lite – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5207

Greasemonkey – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748

Context Search – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/240

Stylish – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108

At this point my brain reaches a blank, so I go and take a quick look through the popular list, and find some of my favourites.

Download Statusbar – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/26

FasterFox – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1269

Web Developer – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60

StumbleUpon – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/138

Image Zoom – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/139

ColorZilla – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/271

This looked interesting: CSSViewer – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2104

Menu Editor – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/710

Aardvark – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4111

At this point I start to realize that the list is getting long, and I save this post and restart Firefox.

And as I come back I have a few dialogues to go through:
Choosing my locale for Adblock Plus (EasyList (USA))
Closing the slightly annoying, but only appears once image zoom pop-up (it’s handy to learn tricks about how to use it, but I already know them).
I hide the Web Developer toolbar from view (I use it’s right-click menu), as well as the StumbleUpon one (until I get around to looking up my login details).
I move the Adblock Plus icon from the toolbar (top) to the status bar (bottom).

And then I visually clean up Firefox – I know what everything means and where everything is, so I don’t need big icons or labelling or every thing on it’s own horizontal zone.

I right-click between the Help and the loading icon (8 dots that go around in a circle) and choose to Customise.

First I tick off (check) the Use Small Icons Box, then I drag the back, forward, reload, stop, home, address toolbar and search toolbar all up beside the Fire Edit View toolbar. Then I remove the separator bar that’s there from before.

Now that the navigation toolbars’ contents have been moved, I can hide that as well.
I delete the Getting Started and Latest Headlines (default bookmark toolbar contents) and make the Bookmarks toolbar disappear until I find sites I want to have there.

I then make it so that NoScript doesn’t show me when it’s blocked scripts (in an inch high bar across the bottom), but to just change it’s icon.

After all that I sit back and try to remember what to set-up next. Oh, yes… the search engines I use.
Wikipedia, userstyles.org, theKoLwiki, Firefox add-ons (from before)

And I remove the ones I don’t:
Yahoo, Amazon, Answers, Chambers, Creative Commons and Ebay.

How To: Move Wine

Ok, I don’t know about you, but I find when I use wine to play games, they play much better if they’re in the same directory as wine… but… the games can take a lot of room.

The solution? Move wine and the games to another hard drive / partition.

Here’s how to:

You’ll need wine installed normally, and you’ll need to have the new partition mounted.

Make sure the partition is writeable as well as readable (easy way: start nautilus under superuser mode and right-click on the directory and change it’s properties).

Go into your home directory and make all files visible

Find and *cut* .wine

Go into your home directory and make all files visible, then paste .wine

Right-click on the wine directory (in it’s new home) and choose “Make Link”Cut and paste the link (it looks like a folder, but has an arrow in it’s icon) into your home directory, then rename it “.wine”

That should be it – test that it’s all working fine by double-clicking a random setup.exe (cancel it after it show it works)

I highly recommend you do this *before* you install any games.