Archive for November, 2007

ActiveState Perl and Microsoft Visual C++ Express 2005

Saturday, November 17th, 2007

I recently tried to use Microsoft’s free Visual C++ Express 2005 with ActiveState Perl to compile XS modules from CPAN and found that it wouldn’t work. The fix appears to be adding a file to the C:\perl\bin directory: perl.exe.manifest

This fix taken from Perl Monks: Problems with FREE MS VC++ tools.

Gutsy Nvidia Twinview window placement

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

I recently upgraded to Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon with the built-in Nvidia drivers and discovered that my dual monitor desktop reverted to the annoying behavior of placing windows and dialogs dead center in the expanded desktop, right at the split between the two monitors. It would also maximize windows across both monitors rather than just one.

After trying various configuration options in xorg.conf, I found that a simple change to the Compiz Advanced Desktop Effects Settings fixed this problem, at least for most windows. (Some dialogs still split the screens.)

First, install the compizconfig-settings-manager package, which adds the Advanced Desktop Effects Settings application to the System->Preferences menu.

Next, launch that preference app and select the “Display Settings” tab. Manually set the display output configuration in the “Outputs” section, then uncheck “Detect Outputs”. For example, for my side-by-side 1280×1024 screens:


Display Settings

Logout and restart X (Ctrl-Alt-Backspace). That should fix the problem.

Some of the Compiz effects may wind up restricted to a single monitor. To fix this, many of them have options to span the effect across all monitors. For example, the “Scale” effect has the following option:


Scale Settings

First post

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

Sometimes, I spend a lot of time searching and experimenting for the solution to some annoying technology problem that seems like it should be simple and already written up somewhere online.

For a while now, I’ve been thinking that I should post my own solutions (when I find them) so that the next person like me stands a better chance of finding a shortcut to the answer. So that’s what this blog is for.