One of its niftier features is software mixing. In other words, it can adjust the volume of the playing audio without adjusting the actual hardware volume levels for the soundcard.

This is cool for two reasons. First, there’s a CLI to get and set the player volume. It’s not very script-friendly, but it’s workable. Second, you can play something else at full volume while playing an mp3 at reduced volume.

For example, if your email client can execute a command when mail comes in, you can turn down the volume on the mp3, play a notification wav at full volume, and then turn the volume back up on the mp3. Mine happens to read a brief summary through the eSpeak speech synthesizer.

This program will turn the volume down on Rhythmbox, leaving the hardware volumes untouched and storing the volume for use by the second script.

#!/bin/sh
#
# rhythmbox-stfu.sh
#
#   Turn down the volume on Rhythmbox, storing the previous
#   volume in $TMPDIR/rhythmbox-saved-volume.
#
 
export XAUTHORITY=$HOME/.Xauthority DISPLAY=:0
vol=`rhythmbox-client --no-start --print-volume | cut -d' ' -f4 | sed 's/\.$//' 2>/dev/null`
 
if test "x$vol" = "x";
then
	exit 0 # Rhythmbox isn't running
fi
 
echo $vol > ${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/rhythmbox-saved-volume
rhythmbox-client --set-volume 0.1
 
sleep 1

After running that, you can feed whatever else you want through the sound system at full volume, with the mp3 playing at about 10% volume, after which you can run this script to restore it:

#!/bin/sh
 
export XAUTHORITY=$HOME/.Xauthority DISPLAY=:0
rhythmbox-client \
	--no-start \
	--set-volume `cat ${TMPDIR:=/tmp}/rhythmbox-saved-volume`
 
rm -f $TMPDIR/rhythmbox-saved-volume

Pretty easy, huh? Now we just hook it into a wrapper for a speech synthesizer:

#!/bin/sh
 
if test "x$1" != "x";
then
  echo "$@" | sh $0
  exit $?
fi
 
tmpfile=`tempfile -p speech`
 
rhythmbox-stfu
 
while read text;
do
  echo "$text" | espeak -w $tmpfile
  aplay -q $tmpfile
  rm -f $tmpfile
done
 
rhythmbox-ok

And there you go. Volume goes down while the computer speaks, comes back up when it’s done.

Since its configuration GUI, gnome-osd-properties, doesn’t have anywhere you can change the colors, I realized it was probably going to come down to tracking down where the colors are hardcoded and changing them by hand.

Thankfully, the relevant programs were written in Python, and I didn’t have to go compile anything from source — don’t get me wrong, I grew up on the command line, and at least 75% of my time is spent in xterms, but I’ve found that fighting with your package manager is, more often than not, more of a pain in the ass than it’s worth.

Anyway, enough irrelevant crap. The file you’ll want to edit is /var/lib/python-support/python2.5/gnomeosd/server.py.

29 30

bgcolor = "#ffffff" fgcolor = "#000000"

I had originally written here that you could just kill gnome-osd-server, but that appears to respawn a new process for every OSD message afterwards. Probably not such a great idea. I suggest that, once you get a couple colors you like, you simply bounce the X server (log out, log back in).

Enjoy your new OSD color scheme under Gnome.

When the laptop is up, it acts as my primary MX. When it’s off (e.g., overheated), Google acts as my backup MX, and when my laptop comes back up, it runs fetchmail from cron.

The problem with this is that the speech synth tends to step on itself. I’ll get two or three speech processes, all trying to announce different messages at the same time.

The obvious solution: queue them all up and let a seperate process serialize them via Unix sockets. I could just have each process acquire a lock on the synthesizer, but in case of massive email floods, say, when I’ve been away for a week or two, it’d just cause timeouts and deferrals.

The server I use is here, and the client that feeds it is here. I may or may not update them on the site as I improve the code.

13:47 < etnom_bar> But i think i will go to the sister bar.
13:47 < @cuervo> heh
13:47 < @cuervo> warbarring.
13:48 < @cuervo> warbarhopping? someone help me out here.
13:48 < @khuong> haa
13:48 < @khuong> sounds like manbearpig butchering.
13:48 < etnom_bar> Omallys and omallys 2
13:48 < @khuong> war bar hopping would be intense though..
13:48 < @cuervo> I still have no idea who or what manbearpig is. as far as I can
                figure, it's some fat dude on the radio in LA or something.
13:49 < @cuervo> shit yeah. you could make a drinking game out of it.
13:49 < @khuong> how to crap wep/wpa drunk..
13:49 < @khuong> yeah it'd be fun.
13:49 < @khuong> crack*
13:49 < @khuong> crap lol
13:49 < etnom_bar> Have done it. Hit every bar in town. Made a big circle.
13:49 < @cuervo> you have to take a shot or down a beer for every open network
                someone finds. two if they crack the encryption.
13:50 < @cuervo> if they airpwn it and inject goatse everywhere, you have to
                pick a fight with the bouncer(s).
13:50 < @khuong> LMAO
13:50 < @cuervo> +10 if it's the bar's AP.
13:50 < DoW-Targe> that actually sounds like fun !
13:51 < @cuervo> I'm going to have to draft some rules.
13:51 < @khuong> cuervo:  you tube this.
13:51 < @cuervo> brb.

So, here are my first-draft rules for Warbarhopping.

1. For each unencrypted and uncloaked wireless network encountered, all players must down a shot.
2. Any player who breaks the encryption on a discovered network may order another shot for any player.
3. Any “damage” done to the network — e.g., redirecting all images to pictures of Bush flipping you off — must be undone within a reasonable period of time. It is not recommended to actually redirect all images to Goatse as the wireless network may be owned by a little old lady who had her grandson set it up for her. Unless you’re an asshole.
4. Wireless network detectors — watches, keyfobs, etcetera — may be used in lieu of laptops.
5. If the bar itself has a wireless network, it is not in play, but may be used to download code, tools, porn, and directions to the next bar. Of course, if you’re even considering playing this, odds are you know how to get at least the directions (and porn) on your phone.

I’ve also decided to finally make the email processor that makes the cam page work (i.e., extracts images from the emails my phone sends) public — soon. A couple quick once-overs of the code for security and cleanliness, and I’ll post it as a tarball, along with the PHP.

On a personal note: FUCK YOU, 2008! Not that 2009 is going to go any smoother.

Also, Wall-E somewhat resembles Johnny 5 and reminds me of me, if I weren’t a psychopath. And if anyone knows where I can find a chick with a laser cannon on her right arm, please tell me.

No, I’m not into fisting.

Why am I reminded of SiteFinder?

(Yes, realize it’s not the same thing. It’s still @#%$* annoying.)

And people say it’s still good, even after two years.

That’s… awesome.