Welcome

This page is some ramblings about Linux.

When I started using Linux I wanted a replacement for MS Word. After working as a technical writer I moved to FrameMaker and finally graduated to Docbook on a text editor. I had put in some time on learning VIM which is a great program for quick document creation. But for Docbook Emac's nxml mode just can't be beat.

I used Evolution for a number of years but my sense of adventure and need to manage the many mailing lists I am subscribed to, led me to move to mutt. In fact I moved to mutt and back to evolution a few times. I think this was because i found the set up to be to complicated, but finally I found some easier solutions to setting up a mail system and I upgraded to muttng, which has the side bar installed by default.

For Music Notation editing I use either Denemo, or GVIM, typing Lilypond code directly in as text.

All the above applications have a lot of shortcut keys and I have a poor memeory. So I solved this by downloading charts with the common keybindings in them, and printing them on the front and back of an A4 piece of paper, and then I had them laminated and punched a hole in the corner. I then hung them from a nail near my computer monitor. Whenever I used one of these programs I pulled down the appropriate chart and read the keyboard shortcuts until, I finally learned some of the basic ones for each of the programs.

To pass this on to others I am including a few of these charts below. If you created these charts please let me know and I will include thanks and a link to your site.

VIM Quick Reference Chart

I used demudi for quite a while, here is my sources.list

I now use Ubuntu and here is my Ubunutu sources.list

CX3200 Scanner

Here is how I got my Epson CX3200 scanner to scan under debian/ubuntu. I apt-get installed all the sane stuff, and I installed quite insane which has a nicer interface to make scans. I then went into the sane configuration file and made sure SCSI was commented out. Then I made sure every user on my system was a memeber of the sane and scan groups. Voila, I had a working scanner.

sbagen

I have used Sbagen for years to create/listen to binaural beats. I once started writing a users manual for sbagen. Here is what I did in both xml and lyx formats: Sbagen docbook
Sbagen Lyx

COLINUX

Having use for a Winbox I still needed to access linbox files as well as to run Denemo inorder to work on documentation for it. I succeeded to put linux inside windows and ubuntu at that. I followed the instructions on: colinux and colinux-for-ubuntu. Now I can have my cake and eat it too. :)