This is the archive for June 2006. Recent posts can be found at the main blog page.

Novell Code 10 launch party

Friday, June 30, 2006 ★ 09:50 ★ Category Gnome ★ Permanent url

Yesterday I attended the Novell Code 10 Launch Party at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ with some fellow Gnome-NL people. After some speeches we had a couple drinks in the sun. Novell taught us that “free” is not only about freedom, but that it is just as much about free beer. Go Novell!

How to make your documents not look bad

Friday, June 16, 2006 ★ 21:57 ★ Category Misc ★ Permanent url

Pascal de Bruijn writes about rules of thumb for desktop publishing on his blog. While he definitely makes some valid statements, I’d like to give my own opinion.

Apart from the visual styling of your text, you should take care of the contents of your documents first. Create an outline of your text and find suitable headings for the parts of your text. Use headings sparingly: don’t put a heading above every other paragraph of text, since they will break the flow. Consider run-in headings if you want to emphasize the structure of your text without using too much real headings between paragraphs.

Font faces

First of all, the number of fonts one should use in a document. Pascal suggests to use two or even three different faces for a single document. I would suggest to start with one single font. You should start with just a single font that matches the text you’re writing and stick with that one font face for all of your text. Vary a bit in size for your headings, maybe use a bold version for those if it looks good. The best option is to use a bit more condensed version of the font, eg. a Display or Caption variant like Minion Pro has. Of course decreasing the spacing between individual glyphs (kerning) is never an option; it will make things only look worse.

If you’re really not happy about your headings, you may now consider using a good companion face for your headings. If your main font face is a serif, please don’t use another serif (unless it really looks different and adds a bit of style to the overall look of your document), because it is really ugly and inconsistent to have two look-a-likes right next to each other.

Oh, on a side note: never use bold italic text! Pick one, not both. Less is more. Use styles sparingly!

Sizes

In the good old times, font sizes didn’t come on their own. Text was typeset 10pt/12pt, or 12pt/14pt. The first number is the body size, the second number is the line spacing. Nowadays, most digital typesetting tools and word processors only allow you to define a font size, carefully hiding the line spacing from the main interface (defaulting to about 110% of the font size). Don’t play too much with line height, the default usually suffice.

Don’t use too many font sizes: a single body size throughout your document and one size for each heading level. Never use more than one font size in a single paragraph.

Margins and spacing

You should adhere to the 66 characters per line rule of thumb. Research has proven this line length yields the best results. Your eyes don’t have to skip to the next line too often, while the lines are not so long that you read the same line twice or even miss complete lines because the horizontal jump is too big.

The 66 characters per line rule has consequences for your margins, depending on your font size. Whitespace is just as important as black ink! If you’re designing a double-sided document, consider using another margin at the outmost side of your pages. Two facing pages will restore the oh-so-beloved symmetry we humans have grown to like.

Finally, an important warning

Remember, only you can prevent bunny punchings. Ban Comic Sans now!

Mutt and IMAP, no password

Thursday, June 15, 2006 ★ 14:29 ★ Category Linux ★ Permanent url

If you use Mutt to access an IMAP server that runs on the same host, there’s no need to provide a password to login to your IMAP server. Put the following in your ~/.mutt/muttrc (adapt it to your own setup):

set spoolfile = imap://buttercup.townsville/INBOX.inbox
set folder = imap://buttercup.townsville/INBOX.
set tunnel="imapd 2>/dev/null"

The trick is the tunnel setting. Put ssh -q hostname in front of it if you use ssh keys without a password and want to log into a remote IMAP host. Example:

set tunnel="ssh -q buttercup.townsville imapd 2>/dev/null"

Oh, and my hostnames come from the Powerpuff Girls show.

Mozart, the masterworks

Friday, June 9, 2006 ★ 14:13 ★ Category Music ★ Permanent url

I received the 40 cd box Mozart, the Masterworks (follow link for a listing) as a gift from my parents. Great pieces of classical music, thanks!

Mozart, the masterworks

I now have 3 different recordings of the horn concertos to choose from…

Currently playing: Piano concerto No. 13 in C major, KV 415

Ubuntu 6.66 Brutal Beast

Tuesday, June 6, 2006 ★ 06:06 ★ Category Linux ★ Permanent url

Today, Ubuntu released version 6.66 of their popular Linux distribution for superhuman beings, codenamed “Brutal Beast”.

Ubuntu 6.66

Ubuntu 6.66 is the first version that will have long time support: updates will be available for 6 years, 6 months and 6 days.

Zero 7, The Garden

Thursday, June 1, 2006 ★ 11:09 ★ Category Music ★ Permanent url

Wow, several days before the official release I’m the proud owner of the new Zero 7 (no flash info about zero 7 on Wikipedia) album ‘The Garden’. Yay for import cds!

Zero 7, The Garden

The album is a bit more progressive and less ‘loungy’ compared to the previous albums. Some of the songs resemble the style of the solo album “Colour the Small One” by singer Sia Furler. Other guest singer is José González (once again for no flash crap: José Gonzáles in Wikipedia), well known from the song used in Sony’s bouncing balls commercial.

Once again, Zero 7 produced a really good album that will definitely not leave my cd player for the rest of the week.