Some random ramblings...

If your Ubuntu desktop crashes and you lose all your desktop icons, open a terminal and run nautilus to bring it back.

If you have custom made .desktop launchers on the desktop, you can copy the files into /usr/local/share/applications so the Dash Home search can pick it up and execute them.

Uninstalling Adobe Reader 9 Linux (SH installer)

I found out a tad bit late that Adobe didn't package 64-bit versions of the Reader so my 64-bit Firefox machine couldn't pick up the plugin.  I went ahead and dug up how to uninstall this dumb plugin.  Most of it is in /opt/Adobe/Reader9 which contains most of the stuff, but you might discover that you still have shortcut icons on it especially if you use the Dash Home search.

Check /usr/local/share/applications and your desktop for the AdobeReader.desktop file and purge them.  Then, look for the nppdf.so plugin install paths in /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins and /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins.

I didn't find anymore traces after that so you should be fine after.

Star Wars: The Old Republic and Wine Update

From last night's update, it seems that SWTOR has been improved to a point where the game actually starts from the launcher window.  I am unsure as to whether or not it's a fluke, but when it did, I got the Star Wars splash screen but the game did freeze after that.  I then went ahead and used the same workaround to get the game running, but I will perhaps improve the script to make sure it's getting the right hash, if it turns out the launcher just doesn't work at all even with this new progress.

Where's Google Play Store??

Interesting problem last night.  One of the Android tablets we own had its Play Store missing from the app drawer page, which was just baffling to me.  Noting that the Play Store is a preinstalled, you can't just uninstall and zap it to kingdom come.  After poking around and even going as far as downloading an apk for the Play Store (which didn't work), it turns out there's an easy fix for this.

Go to Settings > Apps and tap the menu button (3 vertical dots).  Then check Show Google Apps.  Why is this even an option?

Most Favourite Nolan Films

I'll keep this brief.  I always wanted to keep track of the rankings I've put on Chris Nolan flicks.  Here's the rankings.

1. Inception
2. Memento
3. Following
4. Batman Begins
5. The Dark Knight Rises
6. Prestige
7. Insomnia
8. The Dark Knight

As always, these lists are subjective.  So, it's just my personal opinion on which is better.  The Dark Knight in particular though... is a very, very distant 8th.

Android Wifi Indicator - Blue vs Grey Signal

In the household, we have our 5th Android tablet and while it's nothing to write about, it is pretty much functional.  Something that bothered me though was that the wifi signal was always grey for some reason.  Past experience leads me to believe that the grey signal means the tablet is attempting to connect, but for this tablet, it seems to surf fine.  After a bit of searching, I finally found out the reason for this.

If your indicator is blue, it means you are connected to the internet and have Google services in sync and connected.

If your indicator is grey and you have Google services saved on the device, it is attempting to connect to a wifi hot spot.

If you do not have Google services set on the machine, your wifi indicator will always be grey.

Reference

*UPDATE* Star Wars: The Old Republic Free to Play Emotes

UPDATE:
Well, as it turns out, clicking the upper left corner lists down the emotes you can do, which renders this list pretty much obsolete.

I figured it would be helpful to provide a list of the emotes that the game provides free players since it seems that when you try to type something, you get the "Restricted to Preferred and Subscribers" message.  The list of emotes was derived from this original list I found: Click Here.  It is unclear if it is an exhaustive list or not.  Either way, the list after the jump.

*UPDATE* Star Wars: The Old Republic - Free to Play - Script Helper

*UPDATE*
The script has been updated to handle multiple running SWTOR processes.  The launcher was updated to also run the server side process that runs the game (although it still freezes on the splash screen).  This update will get the appropriate SWTOR.EXE process' arguments and terminate the running copy.

I wrote a bash script that will help with those pesky arguments when getting the game to run on Wine.  Run the launcher, and click Play.  Then run the script and copy the arguments.  Paste it on Play on Linux and then enjoy the game.  The script is quick and dirty.  As usual, no explicit warranty.

Bash Script *version 2*