qpmarl blog

Here's a picture of the chair on the base I made for it. It's the best chair ever.

Xfce is a lot like other desktop managers - if you're a Windows only user, then the only desktop manager that you are likely familiar with (and probably don't spend much time thinking about) is "the Windows Desktop¹".

And like other desktop managers, Xfce serves up eye candy like it's Halloween 365 days/year.

One of the fancy effects is window shadows². The 3D look and feel seems to be regarded as a necessity by GUI designers these days. The shadows are enabled by default and didn't bother me at all - until I switched the window manager's behavior to "focus follows mouse" and "do not raise on in-window click or focus". I like this behavior because I can be scrolling through a webpage or writing some email, but have another window open above the browser so that I can keep an eye it. If I decide that I do want the browser on top, it's a simple matter to click the title bar to bring it to the top.

Now the window shadows have become a problem - simply because the window manager does not clear them properly when bringing an already focused window to the top. Any overlapping windows are cleared, but their shadows remain visible on the now topmost window - until the entire window is redrawn³.

This obviously became a pain in the neck rather quickly, so I had to disable them - only to find out that they are not only on by default, but that there is no option in Xfce's window manager properties (or any other Xfce settings dialog that I could find) to disable them.

There's probably an Xfce config file somewhere to disable it, but hunting that down could take a while. But I know what to do. I know that the shadows depend on the X server's "composite" extension.

So I just edited xorg.conf and disabled the composite extension.

Problem solved.

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<sup>1. In fact, most desktop managers perform the role of, in MS Windows terms, The Desktop (Icons and Wallpaper), The "Start" menu (usually called the application launcher in other managers), the task bar, the System tray, and maybe some other things.

2. Window Shadows are actually a "feature" of the window manager, but as this is almost always closely tied to the desktop manager - and usually controlled through the desktop manager, it can be thought of as in the domain of the desktop manager.

3. The windows are redrawn when moved, resized, and for any number of other reasons.</sup>

Neither dog eats lettuce (Gus will if you throw it for him and he swallows it without tasting it). Kia doesn't eat tomato, but Gus does.

They both eat grapes (I was a bit surprised by this). Gus seems to really like them as he's standing beside me, slobbering on my arm as I'm eating a bowl of grapes. If I throw one for him, he goes nuts. Kia doesn't seem to like them quite as much.

I started to suspect there was a penny in the garbage disposal the first time I turned it on after arriving here in September. Suspicions were confirmed when I took a look in there while it was running - I could see the penny bouncing around every once in a while.

I don't use the thing very often and I didn't feel like sticking my hand in there - so I left it.

But today I figured it would probably be better to not have a penny in the garbage disposal, so I retrieved it. It actually wasn't very easy to find - my hand barely fits in there and I couldn't feel it the first time - so I tried to look in there and find it, but couldn't see it - so I ran it a bit and looked again. Finally it was in plain sight, so I reached in and got it. It's barely identifiable as a penny anymore - It looks more like some unearthed ancient Roman coin or something.


Anyhow the disposal is not so annoying to use now - it was pretty loud.

I'm taking care of the dogs while my parents are away. These dogs are worse than kids - they require constant attention and are in my face whenever I'm cooking or eating or trying to sleep. And every 10 minutes they want to either go out or come back in.

Today I had two pans on the stove - one with rice and one with burger. I went to the rice, picked up the pan and the dogs got excited (they always expect the cook, usually my dad, to give them a taste). So I said, "You think you like rice, huh?" and gave them each a bit. It was just plain white rice, but they went for it like it was filet mignon.

Later I was writing some email or something on the computer in my bedroom and they got to wrestling in there - they have to be wherever I am. The wrestling got pretty rough and they were on my bed. One of them fell behind the bed and pushed it away from the wall - it's on rollers because my mom's crazy. So I scolded them and chased them out of the room. I straightened up the bed and got back to work on the computer. Then, as I was finishing up, they were meandering back into my room. It didn't bother me, but I was getting up as they were coming in. They must have thought that I was getting up to kick them out 'cause they turned tail and were falling over each other in order to get out. It was a pretty funny sight.

Gus is the gray one and Kia is the light brown one with her head out of frame. The black one isn't ours and isn't here - this picture was taken on a pack trip and my dad's friend brought his dogs too - the black on is his.