“Qt will not be built with xshape support”

I was starting to fool around with Qt just when Qt v4.5 was released.

The first thing to do obviously was to download the source tarball and build it. But the first ./configure command resulted in “Qt will not be built with xshape support”, which was obviously a let-down. To make things worse, when I ignored this message and went on with “make”, the compilation failed with some compilation errors.

So I googled around, and found this:

To solve this problem, install the xorg-dev package.

This is for ubuntu/debian systems. For other distributions, the same may be available under a different package name. I don\’t really know.

And oh, I was reading this online book yesterday, and maybe it will be a great help for people to get started with – Qt 4: Introduction to Design Patterns in C++ with Qt 4

Hope this piece-o-text is a lifesaver for many a baffled Qt starters.

HOWTO: Parse URLs using Javascript to extract GET variables and more

Most server side languages have inbuilt capabillity of reading GET variables passed via the URL.

But in two (or more) cases, we may need to read these variabes on the client side using javascript. This might be when:

• You need to find out what the server did/will do on recipt of a particular URL (usually the one on which you currently are)
• You are building a dynamic AJAX based website, and you are making dynamically loaded content linkable using # in the URL (example: http://jrharshath.com/blog#Article?articleid=12345).

I am currently building an AJAX based application on jswaf and it faces second problem, so I wrote a script for this express purpose: to parse URL like strings into BaseURL and key-value paired parameters.

The code is located here, and a demo is located here.

The code is free to borrow. Just provide credits if you do, and drop me a line if you like it, or would like to learn how to use it.

Logos for the blog

Vividly coloured logo

The logo with my avatar in the background

How do you like these “original pieces of art” by me?

PS: made on GIMP 2.6

Get this: Grab up says I am a “wierdo”!

the-grab-up-wierdos

Originally uploaded by jrharshath

After so much time of using linux, who would have thought that I would some day be categorized as a “wierdo”?

And now some random Mac OSX glorifying sucker has done that to me! Whats more, he has grouped me along with all the windows toting fiends! Thats really the last string!

In return, I call them… Mac-dicks!

BTW, this Grab Up thing is a screenshot sharing service… and by what I’ve heard, it pretty great.

Well… I don’t really have anything against them.
I am only shocked how I could be a “wierdo”

Interesting facts

Here are some interesting facts I found on the internet…

1. If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on your
   right side. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on
   your left side.
2. If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink
   more water. For when a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism
   shuts off.
3. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
4. Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. If it is white there is a thin film of bacteria on it.
5. The Mercedes-Benz motto is ‘Das Beste oder Nichts’ meaning ‘the best or nothing’.
6. The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal.
7. The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing.
8. The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.
9. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune
   system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only
   laugh 15 to 100 times a day.
10. The roar that we hear when we
    place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound
    of blood surging through the veins in the ear.
11. Dalmatians are born without spots.
12. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
13. The ‘v’ in the name of a court case does not stand for ‘versus’, but
    for ‘and’ (in civil proceedings) or ‘against’ (in criminal proceedings).
14. Men’s shirts have the buttons on the right, but women’s shirts have the buttons on the left.
15. The owl is the only bird to drop its upper eyelid to wink. All other birds raise their lower eyelids.
16. The reason honey is so easy to digest is that it’s already been digested by a bee.
17. Roosters cannot crow if they cannot extend their necks.
18. The color blue has a calming effect. It causes the brain to release calming hormones.
19. Every time you sneeze some of your brain cells die.
20. Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.
21. The verb “cleave” is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.
22. When you blush, the lining of your stomach also turns red.
23. When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red.
24. The first Harley Davidson motorcycle was built in 1903, and used a tomato can for a carburetor.
25. The lion that roars in the MGM logo is named Volney.
26. Switching letters is called spoonerism. For example, saying jag of Flapan, instead of flag of Japan.
27. It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it.
28. The attachment of the human skin to muscles is what causes dimples.
29. There are 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
30. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.
31. Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.
32. It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.
33. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
34. Most soccer players run 7 miles in a game.
35. The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly from the air.
36. Every day 200 million couples make love, 400,000 babies are born, and 140,000 people die.
37. In most watch advertisements the time displayed on the watch is 10:10
    because then the arms frame the brand of the watch (and make it look
    like it is smiling).
38. Colgate faced big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries. Colgate translates into the command “go hang yourself.”.
39. The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning its head are the rabbit and the parrot.
40. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
41. Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys? They are: Mizaru(See
    no evil), Mikazaru(Hear no evil), and Mazaru(Speak no evil).
42. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
43. German Shepherds bite humans more than any other breed of dog.
44. Large kangaroos cover more than 30 feet with each jump.
45. Whip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound.
46. Two animal rights protesters were protesting at the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence and stampeded, trampling the two hapless protesters to death.
47. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural cause.
48. The human heart creates enough pressure while pumping to squirt blood 30 feet!