One of the minor issues I had since installing ubuntu on my eee pc was I couldn’t work out how to turn the wifi off. There’s a Fn+F2 key combo that works in xandros, but it didn’t work for me in ubuntu. I tried googling for the answer and got nowhere.

So, for google, to turn wifi off, I had to echo 0 > /proc/acpi/asus/wlan Turning it on is obviously echo 1 > /proc/acpi/asus/wlan

Another problem fixed (sort of), I wouldn’t mind fixing Fn+F2, but I’m happy enough with the echo for now.

Inspired by Paul Fenwick’s entertaining talk on cleaning up the web at LCA (in other words, I ripped it off) I set out to make google reader more useable on the Eee.

But first, an invaluable Firefox plugin to have for the Eee is Nuke Anything Enhanced. It lets you right click on an object on a web page, and “nuke” it, make it disappear. The screen then rearranges itself using the space you just created. It gives you more reading room, and less clutter. It’s not gone for good, though, if you reload the page it will be back. It’s fine for one off things, but if it’s a page you’ll be opening frequently, like google reader in my case, you’ll want a permanent solution. Enter greasemonkey.

// ==UserScript==
// @name google reader for eee pc
// @namespace http://chesterton.id.au/
// @description Removes unnecessary elements
// @include http://*.google.com/reader/*
// ==/UserScript==

function hideContent(id) {
   var node = document.getElementById(id);
   if (node) {
     node.style.display = "none";
   }
}


So I ripped hideContent off from Paul, I found with google reader removing the object broke the page, but hiding it worked, so I modified his function a little. I think his was called removeContent, or similar, and deleted rather than setting the display style to none.

Save the code as (eg) googlereader.user.js and open it in firefox. The .user.js part of the file name is important, the first part isn’t. Obviously you need to install greasemonkey, too.

Google Reader Greasemonkey Script

Just got a new office. An Eee PC (JB HiFi had them for $450), and a 3G wireless internet connection (5Gigs/month for $39/month). Not really sure how much time I’m going to get out of it with the usb wireless modem connected, I’ve been told the modem sucks the juice. Got a bit of experimenting to do with the battery, and to see if VoIP works.

Still running the default desktop, it looks fine to me, but I’ll be testing out other desktops like eeexubuntu. I was really surprised how quickly open office launched, the speed is impressive.

I’m looking forward to mornings with a coffee down the river.