ESN's Blog

Disable Startup Sound in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty

2011-09-03T09:10:00.000+09:00

Sometimes when I started my notebook at night, the startup music often disturbed my family. It was time-consuming for me to find how to disable the sound, but it takes only 3 minutes to do it. Here you go.

I found that there are two pieces of sound at startup:

Sound for Login Screen
- Go to the right-upper corner of your desktop
- Select ‘Menu –> System –> Login Screen’
- Check the option ‘Play login sound’, and close the dialog
- Go to the dialog ‘Login Screen’ again, uncheck the option ‘Play login sound’, and close out
The option ‘Play login sound’ is unchecked by default, but login screen sound is played actually, which should be a bug.
Sound after login
- Go to the right-upper corner of your desktop
- Select ‘Menu –> Preference –> Startup Applications’
- Uncheck the option ‘Gnome Login Sound’, and close the dialog

The menu of your system may be a little different, but look for the two dialogs, ‘Login Screen’ and ‘Startup Applications’.

FYI, the two pieces of music are located at /usr/share/sounds/, and you can replace them with your favorites.

Get back desktop icons

2011-02-10T22:07:00.008+09:00

I am using Linux Deepin 10.06, a Chinese community distribution based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, using xfce4 as its desktop environment. For some reason, my desktop icons have disappeared. I found a lot of solution like going to

Settings > Settings Manager > Desktop

and selecting

Allow xfce to manage the desktop

However I did not find the option at all. This post mentioned xfdesktop. I tried the command, and the icons came back. There seem to be a lot of people who have problems with their desktop "disappearing" on xfce. Maybe the command xfdesktop can help you get back your xfce desktop icons.

Weather report powered by python

2011-02-05T21:02:00.005+09:00

I would like to insert weather report to my diary automatically, so I googled "weather script python" - yes, I prefer python - and found a python script fetching weather report from Yahoo! Weather written by Thomas Upton

In order to use the script, I looked up the location ID for my city. I searched Yahoo Weather home page. The location ID is in the URL for the forecast page for the city. For example, the forecast page for Los Angeles is http://weather.yahoo.com/united-states/california/los-angeles-2442047/. The location ID of Los Angeles is 2442047.

Unfortunately, the script does not work for me. I checked the python source code, and found the feed URL is "http://xml.weather.yahoo.com/forecastrss?p=", which seems only for US zip code. So I modified the URL to "http://weather.yahooapis.com/forecastrss?w=", which works with the code from Yahoo Weather home page.

You can apply a patch if you would like, which I supply here:

--- weather.py 2011-02-05 21:40:02.000000000 +0900
+++ weather.py 2011-02-05 21:51:43.000000000 +0900
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@

# Yahoo!'s limit on the number of days they will forecast
DAYS_LIMIT = 2
-WEATHER_URL = 'http://xml.weather.yahoo.com/forecastrss?p=%s'
+#WEATHER_URL = 'http://xml.weather.yahoo.com/forecastrss?p=%s'
+WEATHER_URL = 'http://weather.yahooapis.com/forecastrss?w=%s'
METRIC_PARAMETER = '&u=c'
WEATHER_NS = 'http://xml.weather.yahoo.com/ns/rss/1.0'

Facial Make-up of Heavenly King

2009-08-04T23:31:00.002+09:00

I drew this one according to a photograph on the front cover of a magazine, which was taken from Nebuta Matsuri in Aomori city, Japan. The size of the face was drew larger than expected, so that there is no place for its helmet.

The Aomori Nebuta Festival (青森ねぶた祭り) is a Japanese summer festival that takes place in Aomori city, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. "Nebuta" refers to the float of a brave warrior-figure which is carried through the center of the city. The Nebuta floats are made of a wood base, carefully covered with Japanese paper, beautifully clolred, and lighted from the inner part with hundreds of light bulbs. The warrior-figures are gods (菅原道真　雷神と化す) or heroes (義経渡海), some of which are from Records of Three Kingdoms(呉軍の先鋒・鈴の甘寧)or Water Margin(水滸伝より「黒旋風・李逵と張順」). For more information, refer to：

Aomori Nebuta Matsuri (Wikipedia)
Aomori Nebuta Matsuri (Official website)

Icons on Xfce Desktop come back

2009-07-18T22:21:00.006+09:00

I am running Hiweed 2 RC3 (a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu), which uses Xfce as its desktop environment.

One month ago, for some unknown reason, all of the icons on my desktop disappeared after I restarted my computer. Today I was free to play with my computer and got the icons back as follows:

Go to Menu>Settings>Xfce Setting Center>Desktop
Click "Allow Xfce to manage the desktop".

Great! All icons came back, BUT, what on earth un-checked this?

Happy Birthday, Tianyi

2009-07-12T21:48:00.001+09:00

Tianyi is the lovely girl of my friends, who are living in Paris.

This portrait was drawn from a photograph taken at her half year old. Her parents made a Christmas card using the photograph, so I drew this sketch.

Last time we met each other at Beijing, you just cried as long as you found I looked at you; next time I see you, I hope you could call me uncle in three languages

Happy Birthday, Tianyi!

Package from Google

2009-06-10T22:30:00.000+09:00

Due to Google's poor planning on Feedburner, I had to change my feed of my blog in Chinese. Google promised to send "some free stuff" to me. Yesterday I got the package: one wireless mouse with a usb-to-PS/2 converter, one ballpoint pen, one usb hub.

Google paid for the mistakes of its free service, while some companies require a lot of money from you but do not offer decent stuffs. I am becoming Google fans...

Demo of using WxPython & VPython together

2009-05-20T14:53:00.009+09:00

I have used VPython 4.0Beta for a long time, but last week I suddenly found that VPython had just jump to 5.0 without 4.0 release! As congratulation, I would like to post a demo of using WxPython & VPython together.

The demo has been tested under VPython 4.0Beta & WxPython 2.8, with OS WinXP and Hiweed 2 RC3 (a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu), except that it is not able to exit normally. The program is simple:

Show a animation window generated by VPython, and a control window generated by WxPython
There is a moving car in the animation window
In the control window, you can start and stop the car, change its speed and move it forward and backward step by step

The program can be started by the following command:

python main.py

The source code is here, or:

Any advice is welcome.

Great wedding Bai & Yin congradulation on you new life together

2009-05-18T21:54:00.003+09:00

During Labor day holiday, eelx and I attended the wedding of our friends Bai & Yin at Yin's hometown, and eelx acted as the moderator. Greetings from friends around the world, love story telling and her moderation was all so moving that tears rained down the bride's face, and hot tears filled the groom's eyes. Guests from the village were surprised and also moved since it was the first time for them to attend such wedding, so that they did not perform the embarrassed customs.

Cheers to the newly weds!

Beijing estate price = Osaka estate price?

2009-04-07T20:18:00.013+09:00

萨苏, Su Sa, posted a blog, 从中日房价对比看北京房市, Look at Beijing Real Estate Market by Comparing Estate Prices Between China and Japan.

Sa compared the estate prices for sale and for rent in the suburbs and downtown between Beijing and Osaka. He surprisingly found that the estate prices in China has reached the level of developed countries, even Japan, the country with the highest estate prices, although Beijing rental prices are lower than those in Osaka. On the other hand the average income level in Beijing is much lower than that in Osaka. However, more surprising thing is that some news says that estate prices will continue to rise!

At the end of his article, Mr. Sa warned that the current real estate market in China is very similar to the economic bubble of Japan in 1990s.

How to say "You are welcome" in Kansai dialect

2009-04-04T21:32:00.003+09:00

In the standard Japanese, "Thank you" and "You are welcome" are respectively

「有難う御座います」
「どういたしまして」

"Thank you" in Kansai dialect is

「おおきに」

Then how to say "You are welcome" in Kansai dialect? I asked my Japanese colleagues. They had a animated discussion, and finally, to my surprise, got the conclusion: No corresponding words!

100-day commemoration of my niece

2009-03-31T23:07:00.001+09:00

I drew this portrait in commemoration of the 100th day after my niece was born, although this post was about 20 days late.

Wish you a healthy and happy life, my lovely niece.!

Maybe someone is wondering that the baby is a boy. Wrong! Really a girl. Many of Chinese think that shaving babies' head bald will give them good hair when they grow up.

"Checkout" Google Code From Behind Firewall

2009-03-31T21:48:00.003+09:00

Due to firewall setup, someone behind a firewall may be unable to checkout Google code like the below：

svn checkout http://mayavi2-cn.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ mayavi2-cn-read-only

Fortunately, the source code can be easily "checked out" using wget:

wget -nc -np -r -nH --cut-dirs=2 -R ".html" http://mayavi2-cn.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/

The function of each option is as follows:

-nc skip downloads that would download to existing files
-np don't ascend to the parent directory
-r specify recursive download
-nH don't create host directories
--cut-dirs=2 ignore 2 remote directory components，here, not creating directories svn/trunk/
-R ".html" comma-separated list of rejected extensions. Here not to download html file (If there are any html files, be careful to use this option)

Seeing is Believing?

2009-03-22T18:47:00.004+09:00

There is a proverb "Seeing is believing". Is it true?

The modern science and technologies have been developing rapidly, and manipulating and faking takes advantages of the progress. It should not be surprising someday to see that Hitler and Bush hug each other, not to mention the inferior fakes. There are lots of Optical illusions, and someUFO sightings were caused by optical illusions. We have realized that our eyes are not very reliable.

Then, if no fakes no optical illusions, is seeing believing? After watching the below video, one may doubt his/her cognitive ability radically.

How can I look but not see? God bless me.

Wind brings odours of lotuses

2009-03-22T15:21:00.004+09:00

Early morning of March 7, my grandmother passed away, to be free from all sufferings of life, for ever... I lost her for ever!

Because my parents were busy working, I lived with grandfather and grandmother before I went to elemental school. Sometime my parents picked me back, but I often threw a tantrum at mid night and my father had to send me back to my grandparents. After I went to elemental school, I often went to my grandparents' house after school without informing my parents - at that time there was no telephone in common families - so that my parents feared that I was lost. My memories about my boyhood is vague, but two scenes are still very clear: one is that Grandma was teaching me to tell time with a big clock with roman letters; the other one is that Grandma ran after me in the Siheyuan yard with a rolling pole because I did wrong.

After I went to high school at another city, I saw Grandma less frequently. After I went to university in Beijing, I could feel that she was getting older and stooped obviously each time I saw her. And she insisted on making foods for me each time. From last winter, she has started to be painful all over and has been unable to do housework, so weak that she did not want even to speak. Last September, when I saw her, she told me that perhaps she would not speak to me when I called her, asked me not to worry about her since everyone has to die.

Grandma's life was common, similar to those of most women of that time.

As a girl and being in a poor family, Grandma had no chance to go to school in girlhood. After New China was founded in 1949, she started to learning reading and writing in literacy class provided by the government. However, a short time later other students gave up so the literacy class was dismissed. Grandma continued to study by herself based on the knowledge learned from the literacy class. After I went to elemental school, Grandma often asked me to teach her Chinese character. She has several tools to study: a slate, slate pencils, and two dictionaries. Finally she became to be able to read newspaper, which is not easy since she had to take care of her parents, raise children including me, do a lot of housework and had to study only by herself.

Grandma got married at 18 years old, and gave birth to 7 children, one aborted, one died of disease at very young age for no money to see a doctor, one given to other family for no money to buy milk. When Grandma told me the miserable story, I was too young to understand what pain it meant.

Grandma is kind-hearted, and often helped neighbors. When my wife became a government official, Grandma told her to keep a bowl of water in balance, which is a Chinese proverb meaning behaving fairly and justly.

Grandma loved to play Hua Rong Dao and Chinese Ring, and to watch such TV programs as All Over the World (祖国各地), All Over the World (世界各地), and Animal World (动物世界), but she had never gone to travel. Once I wanted to take Grandma to go sightseeing in Beijing when I was a university student in Beijing. However for some reasons it was not realized, and became my pity for ever.

Grandma did housework all life long. She ever told me that she had gone nowhere, done nothing, and wasted entire life. Grandma, even though you lived a common life, I can not forget you, can not forget your delicious foods, can not forget your story about the old photos, can not forget how you insisted in studying reading and writing, can not forget your sufferings and wishes, can not forget your stooped figure... Grandma, I miss you!

Grandma believed in Buddhism. I made a sketch of lotus and my wife wrote a poem for Grandma. Sorry, I did not translate it since it is still too difficult for me now.

听说，您去得安详
此刻，必在佛乐悠扬中
紧随飞天的舞带开眼于佛国的完美
想来——那里可以解脱绵延的病苦，
没有众多人力不及的无奈。

愿您在笑得超凡脱俗之后
从田田的莲叶中拈得最幽香的花
花瓣上镌刻着最喜欢的经文
永是被光明的点拨不间断地彻悟
眼口心耳都是隽永馨柔

我们想起您的时候，
定是温善恭俭的美好句语
都是顽强不息的坚韧意志
愿这样的每一回
您都正微笑着俯视我们
无忧无虑地散花香世来

See without Eyes

2009-03-02T23:08:00.003+09:00

Life is full of possibilities, miracles, surprises. The guy who makes musical instruments with vegetables was much admired - the life can be so interesting, while blind Ben gave a great deal of encouragement to me - the possibilities of life are over imagination.

Ben lost his eyes at 3 years old. Now he can feel the environment by echoes of sounds, similar to dolphins or bats. However they utilize ultrasound while Ben has the same hearing range as other people. He is able to "see" nearby buildings, cars and obstacles, and able to play skating, shoot a basket, ride a bicycle, and even to perform acrobatic movements on bicycle.

His mother, Aquanetta Gordon, said that due to a cancer, they had to make a choice between his eyes and life:

“My Choice was, you know, to...to remove the eyes.”

After the surgery, they had such talk:

“Mum, I can't see any more, any more!”
“Yes, baby，you can see, with your hands...nose...ears，baby, you can still see...”

The mother is always encouraging Ben and giving him confidence. She never cried before Ben and never let him know she felt sorry for him.

At the first half of the video, she mentioned:

“Ben knows that nothing is impossible for him.”

This is the best note for the video which belongs to the series “Extraordinary People”.

Other parts can be found below.
[Part 2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1QaCe... (10:37)
[Part 3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikpNZO... (10:20)
[Part 4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Px-aP... (10:34)
[Part 5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNkJ1d... (05:12)

Vegetable Instrument

2009-03-01T01:02:00.003+09:00

When I was a boy, I loved to read a magazine, where there was a column, The Boundless Universe, telling anecdotes of nature. Now I think the editors' outlook was not broad enough. Of course wonders of nature are unparalleled, but imagination of humans is also fascinating.

In the below video a Japanese guy makes musical instruments with vegetables! Very funny!

The next one is that he performs “My Grandfather's Clock” with radish slide whistle. It is decent, isn't it?

Happy Birthday, Darling

2009-02-25T08:31:00.000+09:00

Happy Birthday, Darling！

Yes, the portrait is more terrible after modifying again and again. Thinking of being given some credit for hard work if not for good work, I transmitted it to my darling, and got the commont "a prediction of my 80-years-old face". At least I made my darling happy:-)

My skill is very poor. I think so more deeper after watching the below video.

Finally, let's enjoy the sexy voice.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T23:58:00.004+09:00

This sketch is for my darling.

Happy Valentine's Day, Darling!

Even though we are thousands of miles far from each other, I am with you right now.

Note:

I have seen some similar sketch, so it is not my original idea.
The Chinese means: I would like to make you the second happiest person in the world, since I am the happiest one when I am with you.

Snow Finally

2009-02-09T23:30:00.005+09:00

Finally it snowed a little just before the Laten Festival in my hometown.

It is drouthy this winter in the provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shannxi, Gansu, Anhui in China, which results that 43% of wheat growing regions suffer a severe drought, and 3.70 million people and 1.85 million heads of livestock are in water shortages.

The finacial crisis is still in process, but the weather came to do harm, too. The most effective facilitie to combat drought is irrigation works, however there are severe problems in them. For example, 85 thousand reservoirs were built before 1979, and only 827 reservoirs were built after 1979.

Is snowman only in fairy tale?

Note: The Chinese sentence says: I stands guard, while everyone falls asleep.

Happy 牛 Year, 2009 (2)

2009-02-01T22:49:00.003+09:00

Happy 牛 Year is the most popular new year greeting of 2009 in China. I even received such greeting from a Japanese friend. Whatever related to ox or cow come out. I would add more, introducing a cow who lives in Linux and is able to speak and think.

esn@esn-laptop:~$ cowsay "Happy 牛 Year！"
_________________
< Happy 牛 Year！>
-----------------
    \   ^__^
     \  (oo)\_______
        (__)\       )\/\
            ||----w |
            ||     ||
esn@esn-laptop:~$ cowthink "Happy My Year..."
___________________
( Happy My Year... )
-------------------
    o   ^__^
     o  (oo)\_______
        (__)\       )\/\
            ||----w |
            ||     ||

Actually, these two commands are just one command.

esn@esn-laptop:~$ ls -l /usr/games/cow*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4264 2008-05-07 15:36 /usr/games/cowsay
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    6 2009-02-01 10:19 /usr/games/cowthink -> cowsay

The cow is sentimental:

$ cowsay "Happy 牛 Year！"
___________________
< Happy 牛 Year！  >
-------------------
    \   ^__^
     \  (oo)\_______
        (__)\       )\/\
            ||----w |
            ||     ||

esn@esn-laptop:~$ cowsay -b "Happy 牛 Year！ "
___________________
< Happy 牛 Year！  >
-------------------
    \   ^__^
     \  (==)\_______
        (__)\       )\/\
            ||----w |
            ||     ||
esn@esn-laptop:~$ M="Happy 牛 Year！"
esn@esn-laptop:~$ cowsay -d $M
__________________
< Happy 牛 Year！ >
------------------
    \   ^__^
     \  (xx)\_______
        (__)\       )\/\
         U  ||----w |
            ||     ||
esn@esn-laptop:~$ cowsay -p $M
__________________
< Happy 牛 Year！ >
------------------
    \   ^__^
     \  (@@)\_______
        (__)\       )\/\
            ||----w |
            ||     ||
esn@esn-laptop:~$ cowsay -s $M
__________________
< Happy 牛 Year！ >
------------------
    \   ^__^
     \  (**)\_______
        (__)\       )\/\
         U  ||----w |
            ||     ||
esn@esn-laptop:~$ cowsay -y $M
__________________
< Happy 牛 Year ！>
------------------
    \   ^__^
     \  (..)\_______
        (__)\       )\/\
            ||----w |
            ||     ||

It acquired the powers of shape shifting. All of its possible forms are as follows:

esn@esn-laptop:~$ cowsay -l
Cow files in /usr/share/cowsay/cows:
apt beavis.zen bong bud-frogs bunny cheese cower daemon default dragon
dragon-and-cow duck elephant elephant-in-snake eyes flaming-sheep
ghostbusters head-in hellokitty kiss kitty koala kosh luke-koala
mech-and-cow meow milk moofasa moose mutilated ren satanic sheep skeleton
small sodomized sodomized-sheep stegosaurus stimpy supermilker surgery
telebears three-eyes turkey turtle tux udder vader vader-koala www

For example, it can transform to a fire dragon:

esn@esn-laptop:~$ cowsay -f dragon "Happy 牛 Year！"
___________________
< Happy 牛 Year！ >
-------------------
  \                    / \  //\
   \    |\___/|      /   \//  \\
        /0  0  \__  /    //  | \ \
       /     /  \/_/    //   |  \  \
       @_^_@'/   \/_   //    |   \   \
       //_^_/     \/_ //     |    \    \
    ( //) |        \///      |     \     \
  ( / /) _|_ /   )  //       |      \     _\
( // /) '/,_ _ _/  ( ; -.    |    _ _\.-~        .-~~~^-.
(( / / )) ,-{        _      `-.|.-~-.           .~         `.
(( // / ))  '/\      /                 ~-. _ .-~      .-~^-.  \
(( /// ))      `.   {            }                   /      \  \
(( / ))     .----~-.\        \-'                 .~         \  `. \^-.
         ///.----..>        \             _ -~             `.  ^-`  ^-_
           ///-._ _ _ _ _ _ _}^ - - - - ~                     ~-- ,.-~
                                                              /.-~

The cow will show its powers of shape shifting to celebrate its year!

esn@esn-laptop:~$ for f in /usr/share/cowsay/cows/*.cow;
do n=`basename $f .cow`; cowsay -f $n "Happy 牛 Year"; done
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
   \ (__)
     (oo)
/------\/
/ |    ||
*  /\---/\
~~   ~~
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\         __------~~-,
\      ,'            ,
      /               \
     /                :
    |                  '
    |                  |
    |                  |
     |   _--           |
     _| =-.     .-.   ||
     o|/o/       _.   |
     /  ~          \ |
   (____@)  ___~    |
      |_===~~~.`    |
   _______.--~     |
   \________       |
            \      |
          __/-___-- -__
         /            _ \
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
     \
      \
        ^__^
_______/(oo)
/\/(       /(__)
| W----|| |~|
||     || |~|  ~~
         |~|  ~
         |_| o
         |#|/
        _+#+_
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
 \
  \
      oO)-.                       .-(Oo
     /__  _\                     /_  __\
     \  \(  |     ()~()         |  )/  /
      \__|\ |    (-___-)        | /|__/
      '  '--'    ==`-'==        '--'  '
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
\   \
    \ /\
    ( )
  .( o ).
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
\
  _____   _________
 /     \_/         |
|                 ||
|                 ||
|    ###\  /###   | |
|     0  \/  0    | |
/|                 | |
/ |        <        |\ \
| /|                 | | |
| |     \_______/   |  | |
| |                 | / /
/||                 /|||
----------------|
    | |    | |
    ***    ***
   /___\  /___\
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
 \
  \
    ,__, |    |
    (oo)\|    |___
    (__)\|    |   )\_
         |    |_w |  \
         |    |  ||   *

         Cower....
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\         ,        ,
\       /(        )`
 \      \ \___   / |
        /- _  `-/  '
       (/\/ \ \   /\
       / /   | `    \
       O O   ) /    |
       `-^--'`<     '
      (_.)  _  )   /
       `.___/`    /
         `-----' /
<----.     __ / __   \
<----|====O)))==) \) /====
<----'    `--' `.__,' \
         |        |
          \       /
    ______( (_  / \______
  ,'  ,-----'   |        \
  `--{__________)        \/
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
    \   ^__^
     \  (oo)\_______
        (__)\       )\/\
            ||----w |
            ||     ||
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
                   \                    ^    /^
                    \                  / \  // \
                     \   |\___/|      /   \//  .\
                      \  /O  O  \__  /    //  | \ \           *----*
                        /     /  \/_/    //   |  \  \          \   |
                        @___@`    \/_   //    |   \   \         \/\ \
                       0/0/|       \/_ //     |    \    \         \  \
                   0/0/0/0/|        \///      |     \     \       |  |
                0/0/0/0/0/_|_ /   (  //       |      \     _\     |  /
             0/0/0/0/0/0/`/,_ _ _/  ) ; -.    |    _ _\.-~       /   /
                         ,-}        _      *-.|.-~-.           .~    ~
        \     \__/        `/\      /                 ~-. _ .-~      /
         \____(oo)           *.   }            {                   /
         (    (--)          .----~-.\        \-`                 .~
         //__\\  \__ Ack!   ///.----..<        \             _ -~
        //    \\               ///-._ _ _ _ _ _ _{^ - - - - ~
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
  \                    / \  //\
   \    |\___/|      /   \//  \\
        /0  0  \__  /    //  | \ \
       /     /  \/_/    //   |  \  \
       @_^_@'/   \/_   //    |   \   \
       //_^_/     \/_ //     |    \    \
    ( //) |        \///      |     \     \
  ( / /) _|_ /   )  //       |      \     _\
( // /) '/,_ _ _/  ( ; -.    |    _ _\.-~        .-~~~^-.
(( / / )) ,-{        _      `-.|.-~-.           .~         `.
(( // / ))  '/\      /                 ~-. _ .-~      .-~^-.  \
(( /// ))      `.   {            }                   /      \  \
(( / ))     .----~-.\        \-'                 .~         \  `. \^-.
         ///.----..>        \             _ -~             `.  ^-`  ^-_
           ///-._ _ _ _ _ _ _}^ - - - - ~                     ~-- ,.-~
                                                              /.-~
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\     /\  ___  /\
\   // \/   \/ \\
 ((    O O    ))
  \\ /     \ //
   \/  | |  \/
    |  | |  |
    |  | |  |
    |   o   |
    | |   | |
    |m|   |m|
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
   \
    \  ....
      .    ........
      .            .
      .             .
.......              .........
..............................
Elephant inside ASCII snake
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
 \
                               .::!!!!!!!:.
.!!!!!:.                        .:!!!!!!!!!!!!
~~~~!!!!!!.                 .:!!!!!!!!!UWWW$$
  :$NWX!!:           .:!!!!!!XUWW$$$$$P
  $$$##WX!:      .<!!!!UW$$"  $$$$#
  $$$  $$UX   :!!UW$$$$$   4$$$*
  ^$$B  $$\     $$$$$$   d$R"
    "*$bd$$      '*$$$$$$o+#"
         """"          """""""
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\            .    .     .
\      .  . .     `  , 
\    .; .  : .' :  :  : .
 \   i..`: i` i.i.,i  i .
  \   `,--.|i |i|ii|ii|i:
       UooU\.'@@@@@@`.||'
       \__/(@@@@@@@@@@)'
            (@@@@@@@@)
            `YY~~~~YY'
             ||    || 
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
      \
       \
        \          __---__
                _-       /--______
           __--( /     \ )XXXXXXXXXXX\v.
         .-XXX(   O   O  )XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-
        /XXX(       U     )        XXXXXXX\
      /XXXXX(              )--_  XXXXXXXXXXX\
     /XXXXX/ (      O     )   XXXXXX   \XXXXX\
     XXXXX/   /            XXXXXX   \__ \XXXXX
     XXXXXX__/          XXXXXX         \__---->
---___  XXX__/          XXXXXX      \__         /
\-  --__/   ___/\  XXXXXX            /  ___--/=
\-\    ___/    XXXXXX              '--- XXXXXX
   \-\/XXX\ XXXXXX                      /XXXXX
     \XXXXXXXXX   \                    /XXXXX/
      \XXXXXX      >                 _/XXXXX/
        \XXXXX--__/              __-- XXXX/
         -XXXXXXXX---------------  XXXXXX-
            \XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/
              ""VXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXV""
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
 \
^__^         /
(oo)\_______/  _________
(__)\       )=(  ____|_ \_____
    ||----w |  \ \     \_____ |
    ||     ||   ||           ||
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
\
  /\_)o<
 |      \
 | O . O|
  \_____/
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
 \
  \
         ,;;;;;;;,
        ;;;;;;;;;;;,
       ;;;;;'_____;'
       ;;;(/))))|((\
       _;;((((((|))))
      / |_\\\\\\\\\\\\
 .--~(  \ ~))))))))))))
/     \  `\-(((((((((((\\
|    | `\   ) |\       /|)
 |    |  `. _/  \_____/ |
  |    , `\~            /
   |    \  \           /
  | `.   `\|          /
  |   ~-   `\        /
   \____~._/~ -_,   (\
    |-----|\   \    ';;
   |      | :;;;'     \
  |  /    |            |
  |       |            |
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
 \
  \
   ("`-'  '-/") .___..--' ' "`-._
     ` *_ *  )    `-.   (      ) .`-.__. `)
     (_Y_.) ' ._   )   `._` ;  `` -. .-'
  _.. `--'_..-_/   /--' _ .' ,4
( i l ),-''  ( l i),'  ( ( ! .-'
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
\
   ___
 {~._.~}
  ( Y )
 ()~*~()
 (_)-(_)
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
 \
  \
___       _____     ___
/   \     /    /|   /   \
|     |   /    / |  |     |
|     |  /____/  |  |     | 
|     |  |    |  |  |     |
|     |  | {} | /   |     |
|     |  |____|/    |     |
|     |    |==|     |     |
|      \___________/      |
|                         |
|                         |
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
\          .
   ___   //
 {~._.~}//
  ( Y )K/
 ()~*~()
 (_)-(_)
 Luke
 Skywalker
 koala
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
                               ,-----.
                               |     |
                            ,--|     |-.
                     __,----|  |     | |
                   ,;::     |  `_____' |
                   `._______|    i^i   |
                            `----| |---'| .
                       ,-------._| |== ||//
                       |       |_|P`.  /'/
                       `-------' 'Y Y/'/'
                                 .== /_
^__^                             /   /'|  `i
(oo)_______                   /'   /  |   |
(__)       )/             /'    /   |   `i
   ||----w |           ___,;`----'.___L_,-'`__
   ||     ||          i_____;----.____i""____

________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
\ ,   _ ___.--'''`--''//-,-_--_.
  \`"' ` || \\ \ \\/ / // / ,-\\`,_
 /'`  \ \ || Y  | \|/ / // / - |__ `-,
/@"\  ` \ `\ |  | ||/ // | \/  \  `-._`-,_.,
/  _.-. `.-\,___/\ _/|_/_\_\/|_/ |     `-._._)
`-'``/  /  |  // \__/\__  /  \__/ \
    `-'  /-\/  | -|   \__ \   |-' |
      __/\ / _/ \/ __,-'   ) ,' _|'
     (((__/(((_.' ((___..-'((__,'
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\     ____________
\    |__________|
  /           /\
 /           /  \
/___________/___/|
|          |     |
|  ==\ /== |     |
|   O   O  | \ \ |
|     <    |  \ \|
/|          |   \ \
/ |  \_____/ |   / /
/ /|          |  / /|
/||\|          | /||\/
-------------|
    | |    | |
   <__/    \__>
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
   \    ____
    \  /    \
      | ^__^ |
      | (oo) |______
      | (__) |      )\/\
       \____/|----w |
            ||     ||

      Moofasa
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
\   \_\_    _/_/
\      \__/
       (oo)\_______
       (__)\       )\/\
           ||----w |
           ||     ||
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
   \   \_______
v__v   \  \   O   )
(oo)      ||----w |
(__)      ||     ||  \/\

________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
\
____
/# /_\_
|  |/o\o\
|  \\_/_/
/ |_   |
|  ||\_ ~|
|  ||| \/
|  |||_
\//  |
||  |
||_  \
\_|  o|
/\___/
/  ||||__
(___)_)
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
 \
  \  (__)
     (\/)
/-------\/
/ | 666 ||
*  ||----||  
~~    ~~  
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
\
   __ 
  UooU\.'@@@@@@`.
  \__/(@@@@@@@@@@)
       (@@@@@@@@)
       `YY~~~~YY'
        ||    ||
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
      \      (__)  
       \     /oo|
        \   (_"_)*+++++++++*
               //I#\\\\\\\\I\
               I[I|I|||||I I `
               I`I'///'' I I
               I I       I I
               ~ ~       ~ ~
                 Scowleton
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
   \   ,__,
    \  (oo)____
       (__)    )\
          ||--|| *
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
  \                _
   \              (_)
    \   ^__^       / \
     \  (oo)\_____/_\ \
        (__)\       ) /
            ||----w ((
            ||     ||>>
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\                 __
\               (oo)
\              (  )
 \             /--\
   __         / \  \
  UooU\.'@@@@@@`.\  )
  \__/(@@@@@@@@@@) /
       (@@@@@@@@)((
       `YY~~~~YY' \\
        ||    ||   >>
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\                             .       .
\                           / `.   .' "
\                  .---.  <    > <    >  .---.
\                 |    \  \ - ~ ~ - /  /    |
     _____          ..-~             ~-..-~
    |     |   \~~~\.'                    `./~~~/
   ---------   \__/                        \__/
  .'  O    \     /               /       \  "
 (_____,    `._.'               |         }  \/~~~/
  `----.          /       }     |        /    \__/
        `-.      |       /      |       /      `. ,~~|
            ~-.__|      /_ - ~ ^|      /- _      `..-'
                 |     /        |     /     ~-.     `-. _  _  _
                 |_____|        |_____|         ~ - . _ _ _ _ _>
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\     .    _  .
\    |\_|/__/|
   / / \/ \  \
  /__|O||O|__ \
 |/_ \_/\_/ _\ |
 | | (____) | ||
 \/\___/\__/  //
 (_/         ||
  |          ||
  |          ||\
   \        //_/
    \______//
   __ || __||
  (____(____)
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\   ^__^
\  (oo)\_______        ________
  (__)\       )\/\    |Super |
      ||----W |       |Milker|
      ||    UDDDDDDDDD|______|
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
      \           \  /
       \           \/
           (__)    /\     
           (oo)   O  O    
           _\/_   //     
     *    (    ) //   
      \  (\\    //   
       \(  \\    )                          
        (   \\   )   /\                      
___[\______/^^^^^^^\__/) o-)__                 
|\__[=======______//________)__\                
\|_______________//____________|                
 |||      || //||     |||
 |||      || @.||     |||                    
  ||      \/  .\/      ||                    
             . .                             
            '.'.`                            

        COW-OPERATION                       
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
  \                _
   \              (_)   <-- TeleBEARS
    \   ^__^       / \
     \  (oo)\_____/_\ \
        (__)\  you  ) /
            ||----w ((
            ||     ||>>
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
    \  ^___^
     \ (ooo)\_______
       (___)\       )\/\
            ||----w |
            ||     ||
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\                                  ,+*^^*+___+++_
\                           ,*^^^^              )
\                       _+*                     ^**+_
 \                    +^       _ _++*+_+++_,         )
          _+^^*+_    (     ,+*^ ^          \+_        )
         {       )  (    ,(    ,_+--+--,      ^)      ^\
        { (@)    } f   ,(  ,+-^ __*_*_  ^^\_   ^\       )
       {:;-/    (_+*-+^^^^^+*+*<_ _++_)_    )    )      /
      ( /  (    (        ,___    ^*+_+* )   <    <      \
       U _/     )    *--<  ) ^\-----++__)   )    )       )
        (      )  _(^)^^))  )  )\^^^^^))^*+/    /       /
      (      /  (_))_^)) )  )  ))^^^^^))^^^)__/     +^^
     (     ,/    (^))^))  )  ) ))^^^^^^^))^^)       _)
      *+__+*       (_))^)  ) ) ))^^^^^^))^^^^^)____*^
      \             \_)^)_)) ))^^^^^^^^^^))^^^^)
       (_             ^\__^^^^^^^^^^^^))^^^^^^^)
         ^\___            ^\__^^^^^^))^^^^^^^^)\\
              ^^^^^\uuu/^^\uuu/^^^^\^\^\^\^\^\^\^\
                 ___) >____) >___   ^\_\_\_\_\_\_\)
                ^^^//\\_^^//\\_^       ^(\_\_\_\)
                  ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\                                  ___-------___
 \                             _-~~             ~~-_
  \                         _-~                    /~-_
         /^\__/^\         /~  \                   /    \
       /|  O|| O|        /      \_______________/        \
      | |___||__|      /       /                \          \
      |          \    /      /                    \          \
      |   (_______) /______/                        \_________ \
      |         / /         \                      /            \
       \         \^\\         \                  /               \     /
         \         ||           \______________/      _-_       //\__//
           \       ||------_-~~-_ ------------- \ --/~   ~\    || __/
             ~-----||====/~     |==================|       |/~~~~~
              (_(__/  ./     /                    \_\      \.
                     (_(___/                         \_____)_)
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
\
    .--.
   |o_o |
   |:_/ |
  //   \ \
 (|     | )
/'\_   _/`\
\___)=(___/

________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
\    (__)           
    o o\           
   ('') \--------- 
      \           \
       |          |\
       ||---(  )_|| *
       ||    UU  ||
       ==        ==
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
    \    ,-^-.
     \   !oYo!
      \ /./=\.\______
           ##        )\/\
            ||-----w||
            ||      ||

           Cowth Vader
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
\
\        .
 .---.  //
Y|o o|Y//
/_(i=i)K/
~()~*~()~
(_)-(_)

 Darth
 Vader
 koala    
________________
< Happy 牛 Year >
----------------
    \   ^__^
     \  (oo)\_______
        (__)\       )\/\
            ||--WWW |
            ||     ||

Happy 牛 Year, 2009

2009-01-25T19:22:00.015+09:00

2009 is the Year of the Ox, and will fall on January 26th, which is also known by its formal name of Ji Chou, 己丑, shown in the photo.

Ox in Chinese is 牛, pronounced niú, very similar to NEW, so many Chinese have being sending the New Year greeting, Happy 牛 Year. I even received such greeting from a Japanese friend, who has been learning Chinese.

You may ask,"But why do you draw a snail?" This is also related to Chinese. In Chinese, snail is named 蜗牛. I guess the name is due to its tentacle looking like ox's horn. Anyway, the snail speaks Chinese, and he thinks he is some kind of "牛", and 2009 is his year:-)

The sentences in the picture mean

My 牛 year is coming.
Hope everyone will guard against conceit and rashness,
be down-to-earth,
grit your teeth,
take carefully your house,
and climb upward step by step.
One day the sunlight will shine on our faces,
and the blue sky will belong to us.

This is my first time to draw using my mobile phone X01HT, and also the only painting in last 3 years. It is really enjoyable to draw directly on the screen, much better than a mouse. I will try more.

There is a famous song Snail, by 周杰伦，Jay Chou.

Most Suggestive Traceback

2009-01-07T21:00:00.003+09:00

Facing tracebacks，I am often totally confused。

In most cases, perhaps you can find which line errors are around according to tracebacks - yes, "perhaps" and "around" is used, since the true reason and related codes may be far from the line numbers proposed by tracebacks.

However, there is at least one exception.

Run the below command:

esn@esn-laptop:~$ python -c 'sum(["a","b","c"],"")'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: sum() can't sum strings [use ''.join(seq) instead]

Hah, You see it! The most suggestive traceback!

If all of tracebacks were so intelligent, programing would be simple. But if so, is it necessary for humans to program?

Note：The version of Python

esn@esn-laptop:~$ python -V
Python 2.5.2

Meter Box as Post Box

2008-12-28T21:46:00.001+09:00

Last week I brought something online, and received a message:

Very sorry to leave your parcel into the meter box on the left.

I opened the meter box. Oh, yes.
If I was not at home, postmen usually left a note, where on the back side there is detailed instruction of how to reserve a redelivery via auto-response system, website, or mobile phone of postman. This was the first time for me to find that someone used meter box as postbox. It is somewhat creative :-)

Japan is the most safe in the developed countries. Especially there is few thieves. People often place things casually. For example, wallet is often put into trouser pocket half in and half out, bike helmet is just hanged on handlebar, and postbox is kept unlocked.

The parcel in the meter box may not be stolen, but it is not good to occupy public space at all.

Install VPython version 4 beta into Ubuntu 8.10

2008-12-18T01:10:00.006+09:00

In order to utilize the new features of VPython, such as Surface Texture, Transparency, New frame capabilities (visibility, scale...) and so on, I installed VPython version 4 beta into Thinkpad with Hiweed 2.0 RC3 (Based on Ubuntu 8.10).

Install dependent packages。 Note: Some packages have been installed into my box when I installed Mayavi2. So the following packages may not be all you need to install.

sudo apt-get install libboost-python-dev ftgl-dev libgtkglextmm-x11-dev libgle3-dev libgtkmm-dev libglademm-2.4-dev  scons

Download the source code.

Extract the source code:
```
tar xjf visual-4.beta26.tar.bz2
```

Modify visual-4.beta26/src/core/util/errors.cpp. At the beginning, add "#include <stdlib.h>", otherwise you will get the below error message when making, which is a problem of gcc-4.3:
```
./core/util/errors.cpp: In function 'void cvisual::write_note(std::string, int, std::string)':
./core/util/errors.cpp:40: error: 'getenv' was not declared in this scope
```

Configure and make:
```
cd ./visual-4.beta26
./configure; make
```

Install:
```
sudo make install
```

Test:

cd ./example
python texture_and_lighting.py

If everything is OK, you can see the animation like the picture at the beginning of this post.