I have never been a fan of artificially sweetened food products. At first I just wanted things that are delicious, but as I get older I am thinking more and more about my health, and so these decisions are becoming more important. However, I feel that if I am going to put trash in my body, it should at least be delicious.
I find artificial sweeteners to be disgusting. I can pick them out too. When my wife buys something artificially sweetened, sometime on accident, I notice the flavor immediately. Many people claim that they cannot tell the difference in the taste, but I can definitely tell the difference. The worst part, for me, is the horrible aftertaste that artificial sweeteners leave on my tongue.
So when I want to be healthy I consume things that are both healthy and delicious. I can enjoy a glass of water, a plate of broccoli, or use a carrot as a snack with no problem. A lot of more recent research, though, is suggesting that choosing food products sweetened with real sugar may be more healthy than their low-calorie, artificially sweetened counterparts.
In Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism, researcher Susan Swithers publishes "Artificial sweeteners produce the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic derangements" findings that show artificial sweeteners may be messing up our body's ability to properly process real sugar, which she discussed on NPR's Science Friday.
According to Swithers, when our brain detects sugar from smell or taste it tells your digestion system to get ready to start processing the sugar very soon. As most of us know, our bodies ability to properly process sugar is vital to our health. When it cannot process sugar right it can lead to diabetes. When we train our bodies that the sensation of sweet does not equate to the consumption of sugar, our bodies gets tired of your nose and tongue crying wolf and stops directing our digestion system appropriately. When we really do consume sugar our bodies stop processing sugar like it should and, according to Swithers, could be leading to an increased risk of diabetes.
There is also evidence found by researchers at John Hopkins University that those who consume foods using artificial sweeteners may also be making up for the lost calories by consuming them in higher quantities in other foods. There are many reasons why this may be true, but the overall result may not be quite what dieters are looking for.
At the end of the day, if we want to be healthy we need to stop consuming unhealthy foods and switch to more healthy foods. Tea and coffee can be healthy zero-calorie drinks in moderation, for those who simply find moving to drinking more water to be too hard.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Install KeePassHTTP on Ubuntu
First, of course, we need keepass, and we'll grab git while we are at it. Git is optional here, it just allows for easier updating.
sudo apt-get install keepass2 git-coreWhere to put KeePass plugins is non-obvious, but fortunately some Googling reveals it to be at /usr/lib/keepass/plugins. Lets go there and create a directory for KeePassHTTP.
cd /usr/lib/keepass2/Great, now we just need to download the plugin. As I alluded to at the beginning we can grab the plugin via git for easier updating. The project is maintained at https://github.com/pfn/keepasshttp, but we can just grab the one plugin file we need. In fact, if we checkout the entire repository then KeePass will throw some errors as the plugin is there twice in two different formats and it can only load the plugin one time.
sudo mkdir plugins
cd plugins
sudo git clone -n https://github.com/pfn/keepasshttp.git --depth 1Now you can update the plugin at any time by running the following from the /usr/lib/keepass/plugins/keepasshttp directory.
cd keepasshttp
sudo git checkout HEAD KeePassHttp.plgx
git pullIf you are only interested in downloading the file once and not worrying about updates you can simply download the extension file.
wget https://raw.github.com/pfn/keepasshttp/master/KeePassHttp.plgxNow you can restart KeePass2 and the plugin will be loaded.
Congress Shall Make No Law
It seems that a lot of people are very confused about the Bill of Rights and what it legally affords the citizens of the United States. I'm not referring to confusions what the right to bear arms mean, or what speech is free speech. I am referring to who the Bill of Rights is designed to protect citizens from. This misunderstanding became prominent in both the Chick-Fil-A brouhaha over marriage equality, and Starbucks and their policies about guns in their stores.
So in these debates people are referencing the constitution to make it known what their rights are, accusing those who disagree with them of denying them their rights. This would be laughably wrong if the accusations where not so widespread, large in numbers, and coming from every side of the issue.
Here is what the Constitution says about your rights in these situations. If I own a business, and it is truly MY business, I can use the money made from that business and spend it on any political, social, or ethical type of causes within the limits of the laws that govern such things.
So I have the right to do that with my business. But it is a two-way street, consumers can choose to not shop at my store for any reason they want. It could be the color or fashion of my tie. It could be my race, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic upbringing. Oh yeah, it can also be for my politics or the way I use the profits generated from my business. And in response I can do nothing, pretend to do something, or actually change my practices. That is my right. But the constitution does not restrict how I can run my business, and it does not say that anyone has to ever purchase my products, ever. This is how things work in a free society. In fact, this is how capitalism is supposed to work. People boycotting CFA over the gay rights issue is capitalism in action. CFA can change their behavior in response to the boycotts, do nothing, or choose any other option they want.
So this takes us to Starbucks where the coin is flipped over a little bit. Gun rights activists took Starbucks establishments by storm in states that have open-carry laws, buying coffee at Starbucks while carrying a weapon on their person. Shortly after Starbucks changed their policy to "ask" customers carrying a weapon in an open-carry state to leave their weapon in their car. Customers where still allowed to actually carry a weapon on them, the new policy just stated that they would be asked not to. This got gun-rights activists upset so they started boycotting Starbucks. To be clear there where some very uncivil responses leaving some Starbucks cafes with smashed windows. However, the boycott alone is just capitalism at work in a free society. It is the right of Starbucks to have whatever policy they want regarding weapons in their store, and it is the right of open-carry supporter to note buy a Starbucks. Neither the policy nor the boycott are a violation of anyone's rights.
I ran into this same issue again when someone on Facebook posted "Will someone just take one for the team already and shoot Obama???" I decided to take this person to task on their remark and received the response "Freedom of speech. If you don't like it delete me" Putting aside the issue of whether or not saying someone should be murdered really is freedom of speech, there is a more important issue here. If I disagree with something you say, that is not a violation of your freedom of speech. It is in fact a dialogue. It seems that many believe anything outside of an echo chamber is a violation of their freedom of speech.
We need to stop muddying the waters of freedom. You don't get to do and say anything you like and expect nobody to respond with dissent. Dissent is how we get stuff done. It is how we grow us both individuals and collectively as a society. We disagree, we make our disagreements known, we work them out with those that we are disagreeing with. We move on and grow. People need to get over themselves and their opinions and realize if you have something you care about there is someone out there who is going to disagree with them. Get over it. If you can't think of a better argument than hiding behind rights you don't have then it may be a good time to reexamine your values.
The freedoms granted to us in the constitution, freedom of speech and religion, "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms", etc. are there to keep congress from passing laws infringing on those rights. They are not there to keep other citizens from disagreeing with you, and taking actions against your point of view.
So in these debates people are referencing the constitution to make it known what their rights are, accusing those who disagree with them of denying them their rights. This would be laughably wrong if the accusations where not so widespread, large in numbers, and coming from every side of the issue.
Here is what the Constitution says about your rights in these situations. If I own a business, and it is truly MY business, I can use the money made from that business and spend it on any political, social, or ethical type of causes within the limits of the laws that govern such things.
So I have the right to do that with my business. But it is a two-way street, consumers can choose to not shop at my store for any reason they want. It could be the color or fashion of my tie. It could be my race, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic upbringing. Oh yeah, it can also be for my politics or the way I use the profits generated from my business. And in response I can do nothing, pretend to do something, or actually change my practices. That is my right. But the constitution does not restrict how I can run my business, and it does not say that anyone has to ever purchase my products, ever. This is how things work in a free society. In fact, this is how capitalism is supposed to work. People boycotting CFA over the gay rights issue is capitalism in action. CFA can change their behavior in response to the boycotts, do nothing, or choose any other option they want.
So this takes us to Starbucks where the coin is flipped over a little bit. Gun rights activists took Starbucks establishments by storm in states that have open-carry laws, buying coffee at Starbucks while carrying a weapon on their person. Shortly after Starbucks changed their policy to "ask" customers carrying a weapon in an open-carry state to leave their weapon in their car. Customers where still allowed to actually carry a weapon on them, the new policy just stated that they would be asked not to. This got gun-rights activists upset so they started boycotting Starbucks. To be clear there where some very uncivil responses leaving some Starbucks cafes with smashed windows. However, the boycott alone is just capitalism at work in a free society. It is the right of Starbucks to have whatever policy they want regarding weapons in their store, and it is the right of open-carry supporter to note buy a Starbucks. Neither the policy nor the boycott are a violation of anyone's rights.
I ran into this same issue again when someone on Facebook posted "Will someone just take one for the team already and shoot Obama???" I decided to take this person to task on their remark and received the response "Freedom of speech. If you don't like it delete me" Putting aside the issue of whether or not saying someone should be murdered really is freedom of speech, there is a more important issue here. If I disagree with something you say, that is not a violation of your freedom of speech. It is in fact a dialogue. It seems that many believe anything outside of an echo chamber is a violation of their freedom of speech.
We need to stop muddying the waters of freedom. You don't get to do and say anything you like and expect nobody to respond with dissent. Dissent is how we get stuff done. It is how we grow us both individuals and collectively as a society. We disagree, we make our disagreements known, we work them out with those that we are disagreeing with. We move on and grow. People need to get over themselves and their opinions and realize if you have something you care about there is someone out there who is going to disagree with them. Get over it. If you can't think of a better argument than hiding behind rights you don't have then it may be a good time to reexamine your values.
The freedoms granted to us in the constitution, freedom of speech and religion, "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms", etc. are there to keep congress from passing laws infringing on those rights. They are not there to keep other citizens from disagreeing with you, and taking actions against your point of view.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Compiling Snes9x on Ubuntu
After looking into the various SNES emulators available for Linux it looks like Snes9x is the only one that is of high quality and currently maintained. ZSNES seems to work pretty well, but it won't compile on 64-bit, giving you a very old emulator running as a 32-bit binary for the foreseeable future.
I used these instructions on a 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 machine and a 32-bit Ubuntu 13.10 machine. There are two sets of instructions here. One is for compiling the Unix version of Snes9x and the other is for install the GTK3 version. Theses instructions worked perfectly on 12.04 but on 13.10 the GTK3 version segfaults. I don't know if the issue is with 13.10 or perhaps an incompatibility with my laptop's hardware and Snes9x GTK.
The currently maintained codebase of Snes9x is hosted up on github so we will need to install git. We'll get all the tools required to build the source code while we are at it.
Part 1 - Building the Unix version of Snes9x
The Unix version does not contain any sort of interface save for the running game itself. It supports a number of command-line switches. Unfortunately it does not seem to provide any way of running in fullscreen mode.
First we need the dependent libraries.
To create an entry in our desktop menu create the following file and save it as /usr/share/applications/snes9x.desktop
Part 2 - Building the GTK3 version of Snes9x
The GTK3 version includes a nice GTK interface with all sorts of configurable options, including fullscreen.
First we need to get the dependent libraries.
If you want a GTK2 build then install libgtk2.0-dev and you can leave out libgtk-3-dev.
Now we can generate the install scripts and compile.
Now we have an executable binary named snes9x-gtk.
To create an entry in our desktop menu create the following file and save it as /usr/share/applications/snes9x.desktop
I used these instructions on a 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 machine and a 32-bit Ubuntu 13.10 machine. There are two sets of instructions here. One is for compiling the Unix version of Snes9x and the other is for install the GTK3 version. Theses instructions worked perfectly on 12.04 but on 13.10 the GTK3 version segfaults. I don't know if the issue is with 13.10 or perhaps an incompatibility with my laptop's hardware and Snes9x GTK.
The currently maintained codebase of Snes9x is hosted up on github so we will need to install git. We'll get all the tools required to build the source code while we are at it.
sudo apt-get install git build-essentialNow we can check out the codebase.
git clone https://github.com/snes9xgit/snes9x.git
cd snes9x
The Unix version does not contain any sort of interface save for the running game itself. It supports a number of command-line switches. Unfortunately it does not seem to provide any way of running in fullscreen mode.
First we need the dependent libraries.
sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev libpng12-dev xorg-devNow we can compile.
cd unixNow we have an executable binary named snes9x. You can go ahead and execute it passing in a SNES rom as the first argument or with no arguments for a list of acceptable options.
autoconf
./configure --enable-netplay
make
sudo cp snes9x /usr/bin/
sudo chown root:root /usr/bin/snes9x
To create an entry in our desktop menu create the following file and save it as /usr/share/applications/snes9x.desktop
[Desktop Entry]Finally, find an icon you want to use and save it as /usr/share/pixmaps/snes9x.png You can get a good icon to use here.
Version=1.0
Name=Snes9x
Comment=A portable, freeware Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) emulator.
GenericName=Snes9x
Keywords=Games
Exec=snes9x
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/snes9x.png
Categories=Game
StartupWMClass=Snes9x
StartupNotify=true
sudo wget http://maxolasersquad.com/snes9x.png -O /usr/share/pixmaps/snes9x.png
Part 2 - Building the GTK3 version of Snes9x
The GTK3 version includes a nice GTK interface with all sorts of configurable options, including fullscreen.
First we need to get the dependent libraries.
sudo apt-get install intltool autoconf automake libglib2.0-dev gawk libgtk-3-dev libxml2-dev libxv-dev libsdl1.2-dev libpulse-dev libportaudio-devAs of Ubuntu 15.10, instead of libportaudio-dev you need to install portaudio19-dev.
If you want a GTK2 build then install libgtk2.0-dev and you can leave out libgtk-3-dev.
Now we can generate the install scripts and compile.
cd gtkYou can leave out --with-gtk3 if you want a gtk2 build instead.
./autogen.sh
./configure --with-gtk3
make
sudo cp snes9x-gtk /usr/bin/
sudo chown root:root /usr/bin/snes9x-gtk
Now we have an executable binary named snes9x-gtk.
To create an entry in our desktop menu create the following file and save it as /usr/share/applications/snes9x.desktop
[Desktop Entry]Finally, find an icon you want to use and save it as /usr/share/pixmaps/snes9x.png You can get a good icon to use here.
Version=1.0
Name=Snes9x GTK
Comment=A portable, freeware Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) emulator.
GenericName=Snes9x GTK
Keywords=Games
Exec=snes9x-gtk
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/snes9x.png
Categories=Game
StartupWMClass=Snes9x
StartupNotify=true
sudo wget http://maxolasersquad.com/snes9x.png -O /usr/share/pixmaps/snes9x.png
Thursday, September 5, 2013
How to flush your swap on Unix machines
After your computer has been running for some time you may find that some memory is stuck living in swap while your RAM has space readily available. The data in your swap will be accessed much slower than if it was living in proper RAM space and it may be to your advantage to force it to RAM. I use the following to clean out the swap on my Ubuntu 12.04 workstation.
sudo swapoff -a && sudo swapon -aOf course, if you are running as root you can omit sudo from the above command.
 |
| Plenty of room to move the swap in to. |
 |
| Swap has been flushed to RAM. |
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Using Rom Collection Browser to play NES games on XBMC 12 with Ubuntu
XBMC is by far my favorite IPTV software. I run it in my living room and use it to play my music collection and easily watch my entire DVD collection without ever needing to pop in CDs or DVDs. All my media is stored in a hard drive on my home server.
I had toyed around with using the Rom Collection Browser plugin to play Nintendo games, but getting it working right is not a trivial task. After a lot of messing around I finally have it working right. These instructions are using XBMC 12 on Ubuntu 13.10 and fceux for the emulator.
First things first. Never run with the version of XBMC packaged for Ubuntu. Team XBMC keeps an up to date version in their ppa at https://launchpad.net/~team-xbmc/+archive/ppa. You can set it up with the following commands.
Now that our system is setup we need to fire up XBMC. Choose Programs from the strip and then "Get More..." select "Rom Collection Browser and install it.
The first time you launch it you will get a menu asking you to create a config file. Choose Yes. Next choose "Scrape game info and artwork online." For the platform select NES.
Now it needs to know where the emulator is located at. Select "Root filesystem". Next choose the usr directory, followed by the bin directory. In here scroll down until you find fceux. Select it and click OK.
Your emulator params should be as follows.
Finally it ask you to tell it where you save your game roms. Usually it will be somewhere in your home folder so select "Home Folder" and browse down from there. When asked for the file mask type use *.nes, unless you keep all of your roms in a zip file, in which case choose *.zip. Theoretically you could use *.zip, *.nes but I had problems getting this to work. YMMV. I choose to just keep all my roms uncompressed since they are so small anyways.
The next question asks you about where to store artwork. You can create a separate directory for the artwork if you like. I chose the same directory as the roms. It creates subdirectories to store the art anyways. How you want to handle this is up to you.
Lastly, answer No when asked if we want to add another rom collection.
With all of our parameters setup click the Import Games button leaving all the settings in tact. Depending on the size of your rom collection this could take a while as it looks up each rom and downloads the metadata for each rom.
There is one last setting we need to make for convenience. Go to the main XBMC page and navigate to System→Settings→Appearance→Skin→Settings→Add-on. Under Home Page Programs Submenu choose Add-on 1 and then select Rom Collection Browser. Now the rom list can be loaded from the home screen.
Now you should be ready to play your favorite Nintendo games straight in XBMC. There are a few gotchas you should be aware of.
The default fceux keys are as follows.
Start: Enter
Select: s
A: f
B: d
Reset: F11
The next one that bit me is that fceux doesn't seem to support batteries so game saves are lost after you exit. Instead use F5 to save your game and F7 to restore from the save.
The delete key shuts down the emulator and takes you back to XBMC.
It is a good idea to log into the regular Ubuntu desktop and play with the fceux settings directly in fceux. My personal favorite is to go under Options→Video Config and set the special scalar to hq3x. This plays with the 8-bit graphics to make them look less blocky. You can also configure a gamepad, set hotkey bindings, etc. The changes you make here will be reflected when it is ran from XBMC.
I had toyed around with using the Rom Collection Browser plugin to play Nintendo games, but getting it working right is not a trivial task. After a lot of messing around I finally have it working right. These instructions are using XBMC 12 on Ubuntu 13.10 and fceux for the emulator.
First things first. Never run with the version of XBMC packaged for Ubuntu. Team XBMC keeps an up to date version in their ppa at https://launchpad.net/~team-xbmc/+archive/ppa. You can set it up with the following commands.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppaNext we need fceux to act as our NES emulator. You could install fceux with the following command.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xbmc
sudo apt-get install fceuxHowever, I wanted to have the latest version of fceux. Since a ppa does not seem to be available I figured out how to compile it from source. It is not very hard and I have full instructions here. Whether you choose to use the version from apt or compile it should not affect it working with the following instructions. If you do install it from apt and have issues let me know in the comment section and I will look in to it for you.
Now that our system is setup we need to fire up XBMC. Choose Programs from the strip and then "Get More..." select "Rom Collection Browser and install it.
The first time you launch it you will get a menu asking you to create a config file. Choose Yes. Next choose "Scrape game info and artwork online." For the platform select NES.
Now it needs to know where the emulator is located at. Select "Root filesystem". Next choose the usr directory, followed by the bin directory. In here scroll down until you find fceux. Select it and click OK.
Your emulator params should be as follows.
-f 1 -x 1440 -y 900 "%ROM%"You will need to change the 1440 and 900 to match your screen resolution. It can be any resolution your monitor/TV supports. The best way to get it is to either go to the Displays section in the Ubuntu Settings screen, or in XBMC under SYSTEM→Settings→System→Video output→Resolution.
Finally it ask you to tell it where you save your game roms. Usually it will be somewhere in your home folder so select "Home Folder" and browse down from there. When asked for the file mask type use *.nes, unless you keep all of your roms in a zip file, in which case choose *.zip. Theoretically you could use *.zip, *.nes but I had problems getting this to work. YMMV. I choose to just keep all my roms uncompressed since they are so small anyways.
The next question asks you about where to store artwork. You can create a separate directory for the artwork if you like. I chose the same directory as the roms. It creates subdirectories to store the art anyways. How you want to handle this is up to you.
Lastly, answer No when asked if we want to add another rom collection.
With all of our parameters setup click the Import Games button leaving all the settings in tact. Depending on the size of your rom collection this could take a while as it looks up each rom and downloads the metadata for each rom.
There is one last setting we need to make for convenience. Go to the main XBMC page and navigate to System→Settings→Appearance→Skin→Settings→Add-on. Under Home Page Programs Submenu choose Add-on 1 and then select Rom Collection Browser. Now the rom list can be loaded from the home screen.
Now you should be ready to play your favorite Nintendo games straight in XBMC. There are a few gotchas you should be aware of.
The default fceux keys are as follows.
Start: Enter
Select: s
A: f
B: d
Reset: F11
The next one that bit me is that fceux doesn't seem to support batteries so game saves are lost after you exit. Instead use F5 to save your game and F7 to restore from the save.
The delete key shuts down the emulator and takes you back to XBMC.
It is a good idea to log into the regular Ubuntu desktop and play with the fceux settings directly in fceux. My personal favorite is to go under Options→Video Config and set the special scalar to hq3x. This plays with the 8-bit graphics to make them look less blocky. You can also configure a gamepad, set hotkey bindings, etc. The changes you make here will be reflected when it is ran from XBMC.
Compiling fceux on Ubuntu
The following instructions are what I used to install fceux 2.2.1 on Ubuntu 13.10.
First you need to download the source. You can get it from http://www.fceux.com/web/download.html. Download the FCEUX src.
The rest of the instructions will assume that you are at the command line in the directory where you downloaded the file. Replace the file name in the instructions with the name of the file, which will be different if you downloaded a version different from 2.2.1.
sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2-dev scons libgtk-3-dev liblua5.1-0-dev libgd-devAt this point you will need to open the file named SConstruct
tar xzvf fceux-2.2.1.src.tar.gz
cd fceux-2.2.1
vi SConstructChange lines 27 and 28 to look like this.
BoolVariable('GTK', 'Enable GTK2 GUI (SDL only)', 0),This will give us a modern GTK3 interface instead of using the now outdated GTK2 toolkit. Feel free to change any of the other settings if you wish. I turned off the debug symbols. Now we are ready to compile our binary.
BoolVariable('GTK3', 'Enable GTK3 GUI (SDL only)', 1),
sconsThis took about 10 - 15 minutes on my Dell 1420. Once it is done we can install it to the system.
sudo scons --prefix=/usr installThe last step is optional but provides a little more desktop integration. You can get a better fceux icon here.
sudo cp fceux.desktop /usr/share/applicationsIf you use Unity for your desktop you can change the contents of fceux.desktop in the /usr/share/applications directory to append the following to get some additional benefits when you right-click on the launcher icon.
sudo cp fceux.png /usr/share/pixmaps
Actions=Fullscreen;DefaultConfig;
[Desktop Action Fullscreen]
Name=Open in Fullscreen
Exec=fceux -f 1
OnlyShowIn=Unity
[Desktop Action DefaultConfig]
Name=Start With the Default Configuration
Exec=fceux --no-config 1
OnlyShowIn=Unity
Monday, July 1, 2013
Installing Minecraft 1.6 on Ubuntu
I had previously blogged about Installing Minecraft on Ubuntu. As of Minecraft version 1.6 these instructions no longer work because of a newly introduced launcher. The following is updates instructions for version of Minecraft 1.6 and above.
First we need to install Java. The website claims it needs Oracle Java, but the open source Java in the Ubuntu repos works just fine in my experience.
You also do not need to do anything to update. Minecraft updates itself each time you start it.
BONUS
I've got one more neat trick up my sleeve. If a CraftBuntu spin sounds good to you, here's how you can setup Ubuntu to just run Minecraft when you sign in. It assumes you have already done the above.
You could do a number of things with this setup. You could setup a minimal Ubuntu installation that has no desktop environment, or other desktop-related software installed. You could also allow guests to play Minecraft without touching any of your stuff by them selecting the Ubuntu guest account and setting Minecraft for the login. I have even found that on my struggling laptop this setup allows Minecraft to run more smoothly as there is no other desktop cruft running in the background.
UPGRADING FROM 1.5
The file contents should be as follows.
First we need to install Java. The website claims it needs Oracle Java, but the open source Java in the Ubuntu repos works just fine in my experience.
sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jreNow we need the launcher
sudo wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/launcher/Minecraft.jar -O /usr/games/Minecraft.jarChange the vi part in the next section to gedit if you want a graphical text editor.
sudo chown root:games /usr/games/Minecraft.jar
sudo chmod 755 /usr/games/Minecraft.jar
sudo vi /usr/games/minecraftThe file contents should be as follows.
#!/bin/bashAnd then set the proper permissions on the file
java -jar /usr/games/Minecraft.jar
sudo chown root:games /usr/games/minecraftAgain, change vi with something else if that is easier for you.
sudo chmod 755 /usr/games/minecraft
sudo vi /usr/share/applications/minecraft.desktopAnd put this in the file.
[Desktop Entry]The last piece we need is an icon. There are many good Minecraft icons at http://www.rw-designer.com/icon-detail/5547 I like http://www.rw-designer.com/icon-image/5547-256x256x32.png as it gives us the highest resolution available. Replace the URL of the icon you prefer to use in the following command.
Name=Minecraft
Comment=Build your own world
Exec=minecraft
Icon=minecraft
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;Applications;Game
Keywords=minecraft;Game
StartupNotify=true
sudo wget http://www.rw-designer.com/icon-image/5547-256x256x32.png -O /usr/share/pixmaps/minecraft.pngNow you should be able to play Minecraft by simply typing minecraft in the command-line, in the Unity dash, the KDE prompt, or by browsing to the games menu in the applications menu in your desktop environment of choice. It is also available to all users of your desktop.
You also do not need to do anything to update. Minecraft updates itself each time you start it.
BONUS
I've got one more neat trick up my sleeve. If a CraftBuntu spin sounds good to you, here's how you can setup Ubuntu to just run Minecraft when you sign in. It assumes you have already done the above.
sudo cp /usr/share/applications/minecraft.desktop /usr/share/xsessions/Now Minecraft is an available option when you select your desktop environment. This works best if you set Fullscreen in the Minecraft options.
You could do a number of things with this setup. You could setup a minimal Ubuntu installation that has no desktop environment, or other desktop-related software installed. You could also allow guests to play Minecraft without touching any of your stuff by them selecting the Ubuntu guest account and setting Minecraft for the login. I have even found that on my struggling laptop this setup allows Minecraft to run more smoothly as there is no other desktop cruft running in the background.
UPGRADING FROM 1.5
If you had already followed my instructions back in the days before 1.6, the following will get you updated to 1.6
sudo rm /usr/games/minecraft.jarChange the vi part in the next section to gedit if you want a graphical text editor.
sudo wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/launcher/Minecraft.jar -O /usr/games/Minecraft.jar
sudo chown root:games /usr/games/Minecraft.jar
sudo chmod 755 /usr/games/Minecraft.jar
sudo vi /usr/games/minecraft
The file contents should be as follows.
#!/bin/bash
java -jar /usr/games/Minecraft.jar
Monday, June 17, 2013
Summer Vacation 2013 - Day 3
The day started out warm, a sign of things to come. This morning breakfast was scheduled for some simple Rice Crispies. Athena declared she didn't like Rice Crispies and was in fact not hungry anyways. Realizing
(Unfortunately this is all I have of that day's log.)
(Unfortunately this is all I have of that day's log.)
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Summer Vacation 2013 - Day 2
Our second day of vacation happens to fall on Father's Day. For this reason we had planned that we would not be on the road, but would stay in Charleston and do fun family things. As Kim says, we get to do whatever I want to do.
I was awoken by Aurora and Athena saying "Happy Fathers Day!" in unison, which they had apparently planned the night before. The camp was holding a Father's Day Pancake breakfast so when we all got up and reasonably ready we headed off to breakfast. The breakfast was frozen sausage patties cooked on a griddle and pancakes from a box mix. The kids readily noticed the difference between this breakfast and one we where likely to make from home with real sausage and pancakes from scratch. Nonetheless we where all happy to have a hot cooked breakfast that did not include any cleaning up from our part.
After breakfast we took showers, brushed out teeth, and took care of all the other morning business before heading out.
Our first order of business was finding a place to paddle on some water. We discovered that the park we are staying in has kayak and paddle-boat rentals. We took out a one hour rental on a single kayak for Aurora and two double kayaks. Athena paddled with me while Arianna rode with Kim. The lake provided a barely adequate kayaking experience. The water is a mud brown and did not look very appealing. On our trip we kayaked next to dogs having balls thrown in the water by their owners to retrieve and RC sail boats that where participating in a local RC sail boat race. With little shade on the water and a river that didn't match the Wakulla River we are used to enjoying we found ourselves back on shore ten minutes earlier than necessary. After driving around the grounds a little we headed back to camp for lunch.
At camp we discussed our next destination. The park has a climbing wall that Aurora was very interested in and a water park that Athena was wanting to visit. With Arianna as the tie-breaker she kept switching from wanting to go to the water park to not having an opinion. Kim and I both concluded that the climbing wall would probably leave Arianna out and that the water park would be best for making sure everyone was able to participate. With Aurora making her objections well known we went to the water park.
We knew that after 3:00 the tickets where about half priced and we had a little under an hour before we could get the discount so we headed over to a fishing and crabbing dock listed on the park map.
As a teenager docks where always a favourite place to hangout when camping. I clearly remember my brothers and sister spending hours on the docks of the various campgrounds we visit. At the dock we could watch people fish, be surprised by jumping fish, see boats pass by, meet strangers, and generally just relax and talk away from the eyes of our parents. I have always enjoyed the company that a dock has to offer. At this dock I quickly found my serenity. A man was using chicken to catch crabs in a trap. A few other people had brought their fishing poles and the kids enjoyed watching the people cast their lines out and reel them back in. I found a place by the water to enjoy the scenery of the marshes and swamps that filled the far expanse of the water system.
Kim, as it turns out, just found herself getting hot and uncomfortable, so we only ended up at the dock for about thirty minutes. We purchased water park tickets at the campground HQ as they where cheaper purchased there by registered guests, giving us a slight additional discount.
At the park Athena and Aurora buddied up, Arianna and I buddied up, and Kim was given a rare chance to relax doing whatever she wanted alone. The two big sisters quickly found the two water slides and started making their rounds going up the steps, down the chutes, and then back up for more fun. Arianna and I drifted from the pool, to the kiddie water playground and back. Eventually I was able to coax Arianna in to trying the water slides with the promise of smores at night. Her confidence waxed and waned as we made our way up the steps, but she found the courage to finally go down with me. At the bottom she was giddy with excitement at the thrill of riding a tube down a water slide. I thought she would definitely make another go of it, but she was content at first and guided me back to the pool area.
Next I got her to take the lazy river with me. She did not let it be so lazy for me. She demanded we go this way, or that way, and laughed as the waterfalls and water sprays doused us as we passed through. One go through the lazy river and she was done. It wasn't long before she guided me back to the slides where we tried both the original open-air white slide and the enclosed green slide. We kept switching back and forth and then Kim got my phone to snap a picture of us coming down. As we reached the end, instead of grabbing Arianna and making sure she was secure with me I raised a hand in the air for a pose. While it did make for a nice picture that Kim caught very well, it also left us vulnerable as I lost my balance when we hit the water and our raft flipped, leaving Arianna in the water.
One very nice thing about this water parked is that they are fully staffed with attentive life guards. Before I had a chance the life guard at the bottom pulled Arianna out of the pool. The experience shook her up very good and she was done with the slides. So Arianna and I found ourselves back in the pool for a while. A little while later Aurora and Athena where having a hard time agreeing about what to do so Kim took Athena and left Aurora to her own will.
About an hour before closing Arianna got her nerve back up for the slides where we spent almost the rest of the time. Arianna had which slides we would do down in advanced, with a plan on which slide we where going to do now, and what the next three slides we where going to do already scheduled. This gave her great fun, and a few times she went down with Aurora and let me take some solo trips.
At the end even Aurora agreed that this was a better idea than a climbing wall. If nothing else, the cool water made us feel like the otherwise hot day was actually cool. It wasn't until we where back at camp and our bodies had time to readjust that we came back to realizing the heat the day was providing.
Afterwards we found a local Bi-Lo. Aurora and I went in and purchased goods for making smores and I even treated everyone with a drink. A Coca-Cola for Kim and I to share, a Mountain Dew for Aurora, a Dr. Pepper for Athena, and a lemonade Gatorade for Arianna. This was the first time we had anything but water since leaving our house.
For dinner I cooked chicken breasts, new potatoes, and corn. Aurora cut up the potatoes and wrapped them in tin foil. Athena and Arianna shucked the corn and Kim wrapped it up in tin foil. I started the fire, which took me longer than usual, and cooked it all over the grill. The corn turned out the best of all. It was very sweet and juicy. We all ate our fill and had some left over.
Our second night camping proved to be a little on the warm side and it took a while before the night brought the cool air necessary to make us comfortable. Even with our tent being in a wooded area shaded from sunlight, it was no escape from the muggy summer swamp air.
All-in-all a very good Father's Day even though we where far away from home with little leeway for where to go and what to do.
I was awoken by Aurora and Athena saying "Happy Fathers Day!" in unison, which they had apparently planned the night before. The camp was holding a Father's Day Pancake breakfast so when we all got up and reasonably ready we headed off to breakfast. The breakfast was frozen sausage patties cooked on a griddle and pancakes from a box mix. The kids readily noticed the difference between this breakfast and one we where likely to make from home with real sausage and pancakes from scratch. Nonetheless we where all happy to have a hot cooked breakfast that did not include any cleaning up from our part.
After breakfast we took showers, brushed out teeth, and took care of all the other morning business before heading out.
Our first order of business was finding a place to paddle on some water. We discovered that the park we are staying in has kayak and paddle-boat rentals. We took out a one hour rental on a single kayak for Aurora and two double kayaks. Athena paddled with me while Arianna rode with Kim. The lake provided a barely adequate kayaking experience. The water is a mud brown and did not look very appealing. On our trip we kayaked next to dogs having balls thrown in the water by their owners to retrieve and RC sail boats that where participating in a local RC sail boat race. With little shade on the water and a river that didn't match the Wakulla River we are used to enjoying we found ourselves back on shore ten minutes earlier than necessary. After driving around the grounds a little we headed back to camp for lunch.
At camp we discussed our next destination. The park has a climbing wall that Aurora was very interested in and a water park that Athena was wanting to visit. With Arianna as the tie-breaker she kept switching from wanting to go to the water park to not having an opinion. Kim and I both concluded that the climbing wall would probably leave Arianna out and that the water park would be best for making sure everyone was able to participate. With Aurora making her objections well known we went to the water park.
We knew that after 3:00 the tickets where about half priced and we had a little under an hour before we could get the discount so we headed over to a fishing and crabbing dock listed on the park map.
As a teenager docks where always a favourite place to hangout when camping. I clearly remember my brothers and sister spending hours on the docks of the various campgrounds we visit. At the dock we could watch people fish, be surprised by jumping fish, see boats pass by, meet strangers, and generally just relax and talk away from the eyes of our parents. I have always enjoyed the company that a dock has to offer. At this dock I quickly found my serenity. A man was using chicken to catch crabs in a trap. A few other people had brought their fishing poles and the kids enjoyed watching the people cast their lines out and reel them back in. I found a place by the water to enjoy the scenery of the marshes and swamps that filled the far expanse of the water system.
Kim, as it turns out, just found herself getting hot and uncomfortable, so we only ended up at the dock for about thirty minutes. We purchased water park tickets at the campground HQ as they where cheaper purchased there by registered guests, giving us a slight additional discount.
At the park Athena and Aurora buddied up, Arianna and I buddied up, and Kim was given a rare chance to relax doing whatever she wanted alone. The two big sisters quickly found the two water slides and started making their rounds going up the steps, down the chutes, and then back up for more fun. Arianna and I drifted from the pool, to the kiddie water playground and back. Eventually I was able to coax Arianna in to trying the water slides with the promise of smores at night. Her confidence waxed and waned as we made our way up the steps, but she found the courage to finally go down with me. At the bottom she was giddy with excitement at the thrill of riding a tube down a water slide. I thought she would definitely make another go of it, but she was content at first and guided me back to the pool area.
Next I got her to take the lazy river with me. She did not let it be so lazy for me. She demanded we go this way, or that way, and laughed as the waterfalls and water sprays doused us as we passed through. One go through the lazy river and she was done. It wasn't long before she guided me back to the slides where we tried both the original open-air white slide and the enclosed green slide. We kept switching back and forth and then Kim got my phone to snap a picture of us coming down. As we reached the end, instead of grabbing Arianna and making sure she was secure with me I raised a hand in the air for a pose. While it did make for a nice picture that Kim caught very well, it also left us vulnerable as I lost my balance when we hit the water and our raft flipped, leaving Arianna in the water.
One very nice thing about this water parked is that they are fully staffed with attentive life guards. Before I had a chance the life guard at the bottom pulled Arianna out of the pool. The experience shook her up very good and she was done with the slides. So Arianna and I found ourselves back in the pool for a while. A little while later Aurora and Athena where having a hard time agreeing about what to do so Kim took Athena and left Aurora to her own will.
About an hour before closing Arianna got her nerve back up for the slides where we spent almost the rest of the time. Arianna had which slides we would do down in advanced, with a plan on which slide we where going to do now, and what the next three slides we where going to do already scheduled. This gave her great fun, and a few times she went down with Aurora and let me take some solo trips.
At the end even Aurora agreed that this was a better idea than a climbing wall. If nothing else, the cool water made us feel like the otherwise hot day was actually cool. It wasn't until we where back at camp and our bodies had time to readjust that we came back to realizing the heat the day was providing.
Afterwards we found a local Bi-Lo. Aurora and I went in and purchased goods for making smores and I even treated everyone with a drink. A Coca-Cola for Kim and I to share, a Mountain Dew for Aurora, a Dr. Pepper for Athena, and a lemonade Gatorade for Arianna. This was the first time we had anything but water since leaving our house.
For dinner I cooked chicken breasts, new potatoes, and corn. Aurora cut up the potatoes and wrapped them in tin foil. Athena and Arianna shucked the corn and Kim wrapped it up in tin foil. I started the fire, which took me longer than usual, and cooked it all over the grill. The corn turned out the best of all. It was very sweet and juicy. We all ate our fill and had some left over.
Our second night camping proved to be a little on the warm side and it took a while before the night brought the cool air necessary to make us comfortable. Even with our tent being in a wooded area shaded from sunlight, it was no escape from the muggy summer swamp air.
All-in-all a very good Father's Day even though we where far away from home with little leeway for where to go and what to do.
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