Harsh J

This problem is very weird, and no amount of googling showed any other similar case.

I emerged GDM (along with GNOME 2.22) on my Gentoo Linux installation and after I restart to see it in effect I met with this nasty irritant:

It comes each time one logs in, automatic or not, after the password is entered. Only if you click the OK button does it go ahead and proceed with the login.

After around 3 hours of madness googling for at least ONE person with a similar case or fix, I got fed up and gave up.

But the entire search time was not futile since I found this page which said that during a boot process, and after login, the /var/log/lastlog file is checked and if found, is displayed.

So I removed /var/log/lastlog and tried a re-login and amazingly enough this dialog box didn’t show up.

Thus, I added the line rm /var/log/lastlog to my GDM init.d script before its first start line and that seemed to have fixed this irritating issue, not in a good default way though, more like a counter hack.

(P.s. I made that window shot shown here, since I could not capture the screen while GDM showed it.)

Any ‘actual’ fixes to it? My DisplayLastLogin variable is already set to false in the gdm.conf, but to no effect.

First, Microsoft realizes it has been living the life of an underdog in the major online market and plans its revenge the old style - Monopo.. err to buy what it needs to grow - Yahoo. Yahoo cleanly states “DO NOT WANT!” [Link]

Google gets worried about it, issues statements out, offers to help Yahoo by partnering it to avoid a monopoly by Microsoft. [Link]

Microsoft is not stopped by Yahoo’s refusal of their offer of some 40 “undervalued” billion dollars and gives Yahoo a death sentence of 3 weeks. Like “boot up or shut up” from Hackers (1995). [Link]

Yahoo rejects once more, and now, has partnered with Google Adsense to show Google ads on Yahoo search pages. [Link]

Oh my, what’s gonna happen to the Yahoo’s advertising feature I wonder …

Microsoft finally grumbles - Calls this a monopoly. [Link]

More action as the month progresses!

I loved Ice Age (The Movie), the first part was very nice to watch with the humans involved and being a ‘real’ Ice Age themed movie.

Then came the second movie, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, which was based on the melting of the ice. And Noah’s Ark. This one was way boring than its predecessor. Yet, the Scrat’s attempts to protect preserve and store his acorn never fails to amuse me. So’s gonna be the case for the upcoming Ice Age movie.

Say hello to Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

Yup its Dinos alright, and they are gonna meet the rest of the crew - A sabretooth, a Sloth Bear and a Mammoth. Not to mention the amazing Scrat.

The movie’s gonna come in July next year (2009)

Jump for the poster (Thanks to DezinerFolio)

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On Windows, when I got to use my Webcam (Once every 3 years?) I got to fish out its disc from the archives, go through the tedious “Next” button processes and then face warning about the device drivers not being signed and that it could wreck my Windows (’sif it doesn’t auto) and then finally, the best part of Windows Installation processes, RESTART.

Ok, so instead of that I just plugged it in while running Linux and a nice popup saying a camera was detected (DETECTED, not “wanna detect and face the peril”) comes up and asks if I wish to import photos from it. My webcam is one of those Mercury junk (Kobian in some countries). Its a “3 in 1 Pencam”. Can be used as Webcam, a standalone battery sucking camera or video source.

Now to the reason of using it - Cheese. Been hearing about this application for a long time and that it was even included in many of the popular distros running GNOME got my curiosity running high. And when I finally did use it today, it was really worth it! The effects are fabulous, quick and exactly as goofy as one would desire. I loved the Warp effect personally

Of course, using it is just as easy as using any other Linux application. All you got to do is plug in your cam, start Cheese and you have its amazing effects at your disposal without any hassles.

You can easily install Cheese via your Linux flavor’s repositories. I currently use Ubuntu and for that you might just click this to get it done. Happy posing!

P.s. No comments on my photography unless you are talking about my screen-shot taking abilities.