To get KDE running under Mac OS X, the secret is simple fink install bundle-kde-ssl and follow the corresponding instructions on the fink web site. Mostly, you have to just have to type starkde assuming that you have appropriately edited your .xinitrc file. The main problem is that it takes a really long time to compile all of this code, but once it runs, it runs well! This has just made Mac OS X that much more useful to me.

Warning: do use the “export KDEWM=quartz-wm” line in your xinitrc. Using the KDE window manager is a sure way to make Apple’s X11 crash when moving windows. This is not documented anywhere, but I have verified it on 3 different machines with slightly different setups.

Here’s a picture in case you want to see for yourself (click to enlarge):

However, contrary to what I claimed earlier, it turns out that XFig does not work. It worked for a time, but now, I can’t seem to make it work again. Update. To get XFig to work, I need to go into the (non-X11) Apple shell and type open-x11 xfig. There is something odd going on with X11 though KDE applications seem unaffected. I might have to switch to KDE Karbon.

Also, OpenOffice under X11 is very sluggish. It seems like NeoOffice is a much better solution right now.

This is very annoying. Each and every time I install a new machine, the command shell has the beep enabled so that, for every ten keys I press, there is an audible “beep!”

Ok, who thinks this is a good default? Why do I want my machine beeping each time I use autocompletion? How is that helping me? What is the case for such a feature? You are in a meeting, checking up on some data, and the machine keeps on beeping? Why is that good? Ever?

I do not want software to make any noise unless I say so.

Now, if at least it was easy to turn off! For future reference, here is the cryptic command to turn off the bell:

xset b off

(I think this only works if you work inside an X server.)

To make sure that your PC speaker remains silent, do this:

rmmod pcspkr

To make sure that your PC speaker remains silent forever, add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:

blacklist pcspkr

I also like to put the following in ~\.inputrc:

set bell-style off

This seems to work with most shells.

Using only knowledge gathered based on my previous posts, I’m happy to report that I was able to get XFig running under Mac OS X in less than an hour thanks to the magic of Fink.

So far, my most difficult task has been to get used to yet-another-crazy-keyboard-layout and to get my HP Laserjet 1012 running. Turns out that Apple does not support the HP Laserjet 1012 printer through a Windows share, for some odd reason. Downloading the cups PPD for the HP 1010 printer and installing it manually didn’t help. The workaround was to actually use the same printer, still connected to a Windows box, but this time, shared by my Linux box (if you are lost at this point, sorry), as a generic postscript printer. It is a bit crazy, but it works.

Now, the machine is compiling KDE. I’ll probably only know if it worked tomorrow. This time, I’m trying to follow the instructions found on Fink’s web site so I might have better luck than my previous attempts.

I’ve also found this great list of open source software for Macs on nothickmanuals.org.

I might also try to update Apple’s X11 before trying to run OpenOffice, this time.

See also my posts My favorite MacOS applications, PDFView is dead, vive Skim! and I have had it with Firefox under MacOS.

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Contrary to what the name suggests, XMeeting is Mac software (and not X Windows software) for videoconferencing. I just tried it tonight to call my friend Martin Brooks at NRC and it worked very well. It even gets around my firewall (NAT) without any problem. Oh? Did I mention it was open source? Looks like some kind of GPL-incompatible FreeBSD-like license.

As with all things, there is a catch under Mac OS with the use of the camera. If you are using the camera in one application, for example, XMeeting, then it becomes unavailabe under other applications such as skype. However, you may get the misleading error message ‘No video camera connected’. Simply ensure that you have only one camera-using application opened at any one time.

My teachers in high school would use lots of short movies. But this was bad as it took up precious time in class, you couldn’t watch it over on your own, the sound was sometimes terrible if you were at the far end of the class, and so on.

These days, the technology has improved by leaps and bounds. Any time this year, you can watch a high quality video by UCR’s Eamonn Keogh on time series data mining. It is free, it is good quality, and it is here, now, for us to use.

Wouldn’t you want to have James Gosling explain the finer points of Java as part of your course on Java?

Having guest lecturers in college requires organization, time, and energy. A guest lecturer won’t repeat its lecture, and every single year, you have to get him to come back. Also, can you get the Turing medalist Jim Gray to come over and explain what a data cube is to your class? These days, these same students can listen to Jim by following a link. They can do it whether you want them to or not.

Having talks available through video-on-the-web is not any different than the use of textbooks, you use someone else’s content in your course, except that it is maybe even cheaper.

I can see this becoming a way for authors to boost the sales of their books: watch me talk for free and, if you like it, buy my book!

The world is changing.