Wireless LAN
When I met Manuel I got contact to the idea of distributing IP over air. Our first project was to get Internet into my flat. Manuel made some pictures of the assembly. Some technical information are collected at th WLAN In-Chemnitz-site.
At this time we got the idea to establish WLAN in Chemnitz to connect different districts of Chemnitz without using external resources. The basic principals are to be free (as in free speech), noncommercial and open to any interested parties. We got a mass of experiences when building connections. Don't mistake the idea with small WLANs you maybe use when connecting your laptop to you DSL router: for us things get funny then some kilometers air, a couple of building roofs or trees are between hosts to connect. Additionally we learned a lot of nice people above the roofs of Chemnitz.
Another interesting project was established by Manuel. He connected a residential area with WLAN to the Internet. People move into their new flat and are immediately on-line. Cool idea. My part on this job was rather small, I climbed a bit on roofs, as Manuel suddenly got a bit acrophobia.
Meanwhile I have what you would call a normal Internet up-link in my flat. But I kept playing with WLAN and build another connection to Artem as he lives in an area without useful possibilities to connect to Internet.
Together with Artem I had a first commercial project when we build a WLAN connection to a suburban of Chemnitz. People living there can only connect to Internet via ISDN, there is no flatrate available. We planed a directed link over a distance of 3.8km which is something like my personal record. Maybe you are interested in some more information (German).
Chemnitzer Linux-Tage
In 2004 I helped to build up the data network for the 6th Chemnitzer Linux-Tage. Two fellows wrote some documentation. In 2005 I will do this job again. Additionally I will organize a special event for the first time, the Linuxnacht.
Some personal dotfiles
Fvwm2
Fvwm is the window manager of my choice. It is very customizable, uses low memory and runs on slow machines, too. I've seen Fvwms looking like Windows XP. Whenever I saw a useful feature in another window manager it took a few minutes to setup it in Fvwm. I saw this small centered preview with all pages of a desktop on key-press in KDE. No idea, how KDE-users do this, but about 10 minutes scribbling in my fvwm2rc and I had a FvwmPager with nearly the same look.
Unfortunately it's configuration is a bit strange. The man page lists nearly 8000
lines, not counting documentation for separate modules. You can spend a lifetime to
configure Fvwm.
Additional to
this you can create some very obscure configurations. I think mine is one of them. So
I will try to list some notes to explain the basic concepts of my configuration.
The basic idea is to operate the computer nearly without using a mouse, 'cause I don't like them. (I own a trackball, but this doesn't make a difference.) In fact, if you are going to use my configuration, forget your pointer. As my windows don't have any titles or frames it will be very useless to operate the window manager. (Of course, you can use it to operate applications.)
So most functions can be reached via keys. This has some fundamental drawbacks: there are only about 100 keys at standard keyboards (I don't like multimedia keys, too.) and most of them are used in applications. So, another basic idea is to get Fvwm out of my way to the applications.
This seems to be contradictorily at the first view. I use another (so called) window manager: GNU screen. This is a terminal multiplexer. You can have a couple of shells for each login and a lot of other features not important here. As shells are most times operated with keys screen has to block very few of them. In fact, screen uses a single key: C-a, by default. Every function is introduced with this key, a second key selects the function. E.g. C-a c spawns a new shell, C-a " shows a window list, and so on.
I copied this behavior from screen to Fvwm. There is a single key bound when you load my fvwm2rc: C-m (very obvious: Fvwm; in fact, there is another reasons I will explain later). Invoking this key will switch Fvwm into command mode. Now you can invoke a second key to move or resize windows, switch pages and desktops, move windows to pages or desktops, call the root menu, and so on. If you finished one of these actions Fvwm leaves command mode back to normal mode. The functions to achieve this can be found in fvwm2rc.screen.
The keys in tabular view:
| Key | Context | Function |
|---|---|---|
| protected keys | ||
| Escape | any | Cancel |
| ? | any | Help |
| move windows | ||
| h | window | to left screen border |
| j | window | to bottom screen border |
| k | window | to top screen border |
| l | window | to right screen border |
| shade windows | ||
| CS-h | window | to left |
| CS-j | window | to bottom |
| CS-k | window | to top |
| CS-l | window | to right |
| move to page | ||
| C-h | any | left one |
| C-j | any | bottom one |
| C-k | any | top one |
| C-l | any | right one |
| C-m | any | last one |
| move window to page | ||
| C-h | window | left one |
| C-j | window | bottom one |
| C-k | window | top one |
| C-l | window | right one |
| direct desktop selection | ||
| [0-5] | any | select number of desktop |
| n | any | next |
| p | any | previous |
| move window to desktop | ||
| C-[0-5] | window | move window to desktop number |
| C-n | window | to next desktop |
| C-p | window | to previous desktop |
| other functions | ||
| C-Space | window | raise/lower window |
| S-Space | window | access window menu |
| Space | window | move window free (with mouse or keys) |
| Return | any | open root menu |
| special (often used) applications | ||
| s | any | share screen in xterm |
| mouse functions | ||
| Button 1 | window | move window |
| Button 2 | window | iconify window |
| Button 3 | window | resize window |
| Button 4 | window | shade up window |
| Button 5 | window | shade down window |
(Important question: you may notice, I can not switch to other windows. I want to press C-m C-n to call the window list and advance in this list by repetitive pressing C-n. Releasing the control key should raise the selected window. This fails due to the special meaning of C-n in the window list menu: advancing five entries. One of the things I could not configure in Fvwm. Comments very welcome.)
The key (e.g.) C-x means "press control and the key x the same time",
S-x the same for shift, M-x for Meta (aka. Alt); CS,
CM, MS, CMS are combinations. The context "window" is
an abbreviation for TFISW (title, frame, icon, side and window) in Fvwm syntax. All this keys are configured
in fvwm2rc.keys2nd. This
file uses normal Fvwm syntax, but is not
read by Fvwm itself but by the functions in
fvwm2rc.screen.
The key layout might look a bit strange at the first view, but if you know vim you will be very familiar with it. Additionally most of this keys have one advantage: they are located at the right side of quertz/querty keyboards (one problem, when I tried dvorak). As I own a laptop with a single control key on the left side I can reach this keys in combination with it very quickly and ergonomically.
This idea continues in menu hot keys: I open the root menu with C-m Return. Free left hand, right hand on the Return key, so all menu hot keys are on the left side of the keyboard (which leads again to some strange keys: a for Mozilla). The root menu is cascaded in two steps. All menus are configured in fvwm2rc.menus.
Well, the rest is eye candy, most is taken from the FAQ and other popular configurations. So, after you have read this your could take a look at the full configuration. If you have any additional questions drop me a mail.