floating in space…

The firefox binaries available on Mozilla’s site is compiled with a version of cairo that does a different type of subpixel rendering when anti-aliasing than what is used by the Ubuntu Gutsy system - I much prefer the way fonts look in ubuntu on my LCD display. To fix this I had to compile Firefox myself with the enable-system-cairo option. But for this I also needed a more recent version of cairo than what Gutsy provides - which is probably why mozilla decided to include their own version in the binaries.

You will need to get the source and compile the following packages yourself from freetype’s download page and cairo’s releases page:

• freetype-2.3.5
• pixman-0.10.0
• cairo-1.6.4

with the usual

./configure && make && sudo make install

You might have to install make with the following before you can compile cairo:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Freetype needs special attention to enable LCD sub-pixel rendering because of these patent issues. So uncomment define FT_CONFIG_OPTION_SUBPIXEL_RENDERING in devel/ftoption.h to enable it.

It is not really necessary to recompile freetype, I just included it to play around with it - and the new cairo is just so that firefox will compile. You can delete the new libraries (by default in /usr/local/lib) after firefox is compiled with system cairo. Then everything should be back to using the default font settings as set in the gutsy preferences. Or so I am guessing, works for me ;)

Now to compile Firefox:
Create a ~/.mozconfig file as described here. This is mine:

. $topsrcdir/browser/config/mozconfig
mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/ff-opt
ac_add_options --disable-tests
ac_add_options --enable-optimize
ac_add_options --enable-libxul
ac_add_options –enable-system-cairo 

Make sure you have all the build prerequisites. I had to install the following packages:

sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install libdbus-glib-1-dev
sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev
sudo apt-get install libxt-dev

If you have everything, start compiling with this command

make -f client.mk build

After some time, build a tarball as recommended with:

cd ff-opt
make package

You will find your new firefox package in the dist/ directory. Unpack somewhere and enjoy ;)

Before shot with Mozilla cairo:

After shot with system cairo:

It should be viewable from South Africa between 4am and 6am, with the full eclipse at about 5am on 21 February 2008.

More info here: Total Eclipse of the Moon, 21 February 2008

From http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Telecoms/2911.html:

Brian Herlihy, SEACOM president, said that the idea behind the cable is to offer international bandwidth at a lower price but to increase usage to ensure profits.

In a move seldom experienced in the local telecoms arena, SEACOM revealed their wholesale pricing structure and strategy to the media.

The company will have a four tiered bandwidth pricing approach where bandwidth prices for larger products, in this case STM-64, STM-16 and STM-4 connections, are sold at reduced rates to the standard STM-1 connection.

Their price for an STM-1 connection however sets a roof for the resale of bandwidth by larger bulk-bandwidth buyers thereby ensuring that smaller players receive a competitive rate.

The price for an STM-64 connection, supplying 9.6 Gbps of bandwidth, is $ 1 663 875 or R 267-00 per Mbps per month. The price per Mbps per month for a STM-1 (155 Mbps) service is R 673-00 while a STM-4 (600 Mbps) connection costs R 575-00 and a STM-16 (2.5 Gbps) service will cost R 435-00.

or in other words:

As I understand it, this means the cost for an always on 128 KB/s connection will cost between R267 and R673 per month, but we still don’t know the contention ratio, so I can’t speculate too much.

Certainly good news though, but I’ll wait to see the actual cost to the end consumer before I start jumping for joy. Only the bigger ISP’s will be able to afford STM-64, although, considering the current cost of bandwidth, STM-1 will be far less than the current offerings anyway.

At least we have a specific date and pricing this time. Hopefully change is more imminent now than the imminent change promised by DoC in the past…

Just finished the book Lila: An Inquiry into Morals. A definite must read. If you’ve read Pirsig’s first book, you will know what to expect, but I liked this one even more. It’s somehow more practical and provides a fresh view on the big questions in life.

But it is difficult to read. Well, I suppose it’s not a simple subject, and his meticulous exploration of every detail is necessary. And that is partly what I like about his books as well. It’s not just some easy to read feel good book, that provides you with feel good catch phrases on a plate. You reason with the author, exploring and following his train of thought from beginning to end.

Unfortunately this is why many people will not read this book. Even though it provides much more than just a rehash of new age values (like the recent The Secret) it is not as accessible. You have to dig a little.

Still very rough and hackish, but it works ;)
Quod Libet plugin to change your Facebook status message

The quodlibet plugin is just a quick hack of the gajim plugin, the python class is easy to use anywhere…

It recently snowed in Johannesburg for the first time in 26 years. I was 4 years old the last time it snowed there.
I have a lot of memories from early childhood but that one stands out as one of the more detailed ones. I can remember the snowman we built, my mother being pregnant and a woman that was stuck in our yard with her volksie. But I never realized that I was only 4 years old when it happened until now — for some reason I felt older when thinking back to that day. Maybe because I’m thinking now with an older brain, an older sense of myself.

I wonder how old I’ll be in my memories the next time it snows in Joburg…