Xubuntu 13.04 and Amazon Prime

I had not tried to watch Amazon Prime videos since upgrading my media PC to Xubuntu 13.04, but discovered I couldn't. Luckily, this fix also worked for me: run hal in verbose mode, create the directories that it wants to use, and restart hal.

Fixing Mail.app's Unread Message Count

After a few days of looking at the Dock badge on Mail.app reporting 172 unread messages (untrue), I searched for a solution. I found this one, Unread message count is wrong in Mail and Dock, with a suggested process.

• Quit Mail if it’s open.
• In ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData, delete any file that begins with “Envelope Index,” such as Envelope Index or Envelope Index-shm.
• Your home Library folder is hidden by default. To display it, choose Finder > “Go to Folder” and then enter “~/Library.”
• Open Mail.
• Mail creates new Envelope Index files. This process may take a few minutes, depending on how many messages Mail is reindexing.

I gave it a whirl ... my laptop fan spun all the way up, noisy, long wait ... and it mostly worked! Mostly means that the Mail.app badge in the Dock showed the correct number of unread messages, but I was no longer seeing any messages in any of my Exchange (ewww) mailboxes. Oops! I deleted and re-created the account to get everything working again.
I think my Mac is jealous of my Xubuntu laptop, so it's trying to tie up more of my time. I think that's gonna backfire ...

Culmination of Doughnut Quest

I really thought Doughnut Quest would take longer, but we reached the Stimmel's pinnacle already. On the drive back from Tasty Bakery last time, I noticed a billboard for Daily Donuts in Graham. I checked the Daily Donuts website for hours and directions (also: Daily Donuts on Facebook), and we picked it as the next destination for our quest. THIS. These are the doughnuts you're looking for. Or the cinnamon twist I got instead of a doughnut. I can't wait to go back to try more flavors and more doughnuts!

install HandBrake

I ended up not needing HandBrake (by not needing to transcode the video), but I discovered how to install HandBrake in Xubuntu 13.04: sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk. Without the -gtk, I kept getting the message

E: Package 'handbrake' has no installation candidate

The VERY Friendly Shower Curtain

Ever since I moved into this apartment (a temporary situation lasting months longer than I expected!), I have been looking for an appropriately simple and effective solution to the very friendly shower curtain. No matter what I tried with air flow, the shower curtain always moved in to wrap around me. I thought of various untenable ideas, like placing an iron bar inside the bathtub apron so that the shower curtain magnets could do their job, but I can't rip up an apartment bathroom just because the shower curtain likes me. I considered using two paperweights (while looking at a sentimental souvenir glass paperweight), but I didn't want to risk broken glass in the shower (or losing this memento). So I needed a unbreakable weight, but plastic would be too light ... getting close! Now I use two rectangular drink boxes, filled with water for weight, to hold down the shower curtain at both ends. No cost, and effective!

Overall, I would rather have a shower with a door, not a curtain. However, these two weights will make showers more pleasant until my house rebuild is complete.

Doughnut Quest, Part 3

On the way to SouthEast Linux Fest, we stopped at Tasty Bakery in Graham, NC. As a bonus, since today is National Doughnut Day (hurrah!), doughnuts were only 90¢. We had a cream-filled chocolate-frosted doughnut. I could taste the oil in which the doughnut was cooked, which isn't my favorite flavor because too much fat doesn't sit well with me. It was a reasonably tasty doughnut, essentially the same as Tasty Bakery at home, but not up to the level of Stimmel's so the quest continues.

Google Drops XMPP

This article (Google’s New Unified Messaging Drops Open XMPP/Jabber Interoperability) makes me sad. I like XMPP for IM and presence. This article at H-online articulates my concerns, and this one my fears.