Chrome Edit With Emacs

More Stuff

If you tried Edit With Emacs on Google Chrome, with its default settings, Emacs opens a new frame for each edit. This is okay, but can be improved.

On the EmacsWiki page, its explains you can edit in Emacs if its already running in a buffer instead of a frame. To go with this option, add this to your .emacs config file:

(if (locate-library "edit-server")

(progn

(require 'edit-server)

(setq edit-server-new-frame nil)

(edit-server-start)))

Restart Emacs.

Esta bein!

Namebench - 60% Faster Web

Go Man Go!

We have a pretty good Net connection. Our ISP, O2 has excellent uptime and speed is okay. The only issue I have is with name resolution. You know, DNS. O2s DNS servers are overworked and most times when our Net connection is slow, its down to the DNS servers not responding quickly enough to DNS requests.

I came across a Google Code utility to speed test available DNS servers in each locale, and suggest alternatives.

If you can speed up your web browsing and it costs nothing, what have ya got to lose? (apart from the time taken to read this post, download the package, install it, run it, and change your DNS entries). Not a lot!

The package is called namebench and can be found at:

http://code.google.com/p/namebench

I installed and ran namebench, it found a DNS server that was 60% faster than O2s servers which I presently use. After updating DNS server names, web surfing was definitely quicker.

After download, unzip the package and cd into namebench dir. I checked out the README file, starting it was easy. In an XTerm, do:

./namebench.py

Silently, namebench runs off and does its thing, then comes back with a few recommendations.

To change your DNS server entries on Debian Linux, as root, open:

/etc/resolv.conf

copy the DNS entries from namebench, then close and save resolv.conf.

Now enjoy faster browsing at no extra cost.

How good is that?

Hasta luego!

Gnome Theme Color

Urgh!

Gnome 2.28 has around 21 Themes of various colors, mostly light and bright. Using your machine a lot or late into the night, a light or bright colored theme is tiring for the eyes. Gnome's darker themes are Unity, Amaranth and Darklooks.

Unity and Amaranth are acceptable but too light. Darklooks is dark enough but color wise its awful. Its way too "brown".

Adjusting it to a more acceptable hue, ie strip out the brown, I did this:

Windows Background: #474A56

Windows Text: #E6E6E6

Input Boxes Background: #6C6F7F

Input Boxes Text: #D3D7CF

Selected Items Background: #31353D

Selected Items Text: #7AA3CC

Tooltips Background: #EDDE5C

Tooltips Text: #000000

I posted these settings mainly for my own reference. Your welcome to try them if your so moved.

Fin!

XTerm Font Size

Way Too Small

The font size in XTerm by default is way small. To increase its size, you have a number of options.


1. Launch XTerm with -font argument

You can give the font face and size as an argument

xterm -font -*-fixed-medium-r-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-* -geometry 80x24

or try

xterm -font -*-lucidatypewriter-medium-r-*-*-12-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1 -geometry 80x24

Run xlsfonts to find out which fonts are available on your system. If results scroll off screen, pipe it to less

xlsfonts | less

Run xfontsel to select your font and get font details

xfontsel

You can also create a panel launcher on the desktop with the same settings as above.


2. Configure .Xdefaults

Add an entry in your .Xdefaults file located in your home directory

xterm*font: -*-fixed-medium-r-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1

or try

xterm*font1: -*-lucidatypewriter-medium-*-*-*-12-120-*-*-*-*-8859-1

Done!

Unix Wipe To Secure Erase Disk Data

Clean 'em Up

One of the many great things about Linux are the free utilities at your disposal.

If you have old an computer, some disks you want to sell on or give away, you need to wipe clean the disks to ensure all your personal data is erased.

A great Unix utility is Wipe. If your running Debian or Ubuntu, its available in the main repository for download.

You know the routine:

aptitude install wipe

Instantly you have a great utility to securely wipe/erase all data on disk.

Its easy to use. From the man page:

wipe -rcf /home/bark/text/

Wipe every file under /home/bark/text/ including /home/bark/text/. Recursive wipe (-r) and don't ask for confirmation (-f). Files without correct permission will be chmod'd (-c).

wipe -kq /dev/sdb1

Wipes all data from the first partition on the second SCSI/SATA disk drive, using the quick option (-q). Before starting it will ask you to confirm.

On a fast multicore machine, an 18GB SCSI disk took 7 mins to wipe with four passes. A 72GB SCSI disk took 26 mins with four passes. For large size disks you probably want to run the Wipe utility overnight.

Unless you enjoy watching paint dry!

Password Cracking

Easy Easy

Clearing out some old images on a machine, and I came across this capture about password length / strength. Guess I read the piece sometime ago, and kept the image. Click image to enlarge.

Using 7 characters, its 2.3 hours against 2.1 years. Its interesting to note the enormous difference between all lowercase and mixed case/number characters. Look at the numbers, the difference is staggering.

Better go check your password now, before someone else checks it for you.

Emacs Shell Garbage

What Is That?

If start a shell buffer in Emacs, you may find garbage printed onscreen instead of a listing of files and directories. This is a problem with ansi color settings.

From Emacs manual:

"If you want Shell mode to handle color output from shell commands, you can enable ANSI Color mode. Here is how to do this:"

(add-hook 'shell-mode-hook 'ansi-color-for-comint-mode-on)

Fixing the problem requires adding the above line to your .emacs init file.

Its that simple!

Chrome Extensions On Debian Laptop

Notebook Shine

After a clean install of Debian on my Laptop, it was time to get it usable. First install Emacs. Next Chrome followed by Chrome extensions.

I have eight extensions installed. These are:

• Adblock
• Flashblock
• Edit with Emacs
• Dictionary
• Translate
• Evernote
• Polyglot
• Webpage Screenshot

The first three I reckon are essential. The rest, well give them a try and see how you go.

Done!

Debian WiFi Drivers

Look Ma No Wires

Installing Debian Squeeze on my laptop today, and early in the install process the installer stopped and requested the following WiFi drivers:

iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode & iwlwifi-3945-1.ucode

I found them at Intel's Linux Wireless website:

http://intellinuxwireless.org/?n=downloads

I needed the iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode. The other driver I found linked at:

http://foomagic.org/wiki/index.php/Installing_iwlwifi_with_a_debian_kernel

here's the link to the driver:

http://intellinuxwireless.org/iwlwifi/downloads/iwlwifi-3945-ucode-2.14.4.tgz

Unzip it and rename it to iwlwifi-3945-1.ucode then copy both to a USB pen drive and plug into your laptop. Debian will search available media for the drivers, find the drivers and continue with the install.

After the install completed, the WiFi connection did not work. I ran iwconfig. Nothing. I ran ifconfig. Nothing. I googled and it seems a few people had similar problems. After trying several suggestions I came across the answer.

It seems the drivers should reside in /lib/firmware, but when I checked they were not there. It seems the call for the drivers at the start of the install had somehow failed to copy to the correct directory.

I ran command:

aptitude show iwlwifi-firmware

aptitude install iwlwifi-firmware

Then started up Network Manager and searched for a wireless lan.

ifconfig & iwconfig

That seemed to fix it, as the wireless lan showed up with the MAC address.

Then in Network Manager, after identifying the wlan connection I had to enter the WAP passphrase key. (A type of long password). You will need for connection to your wireless router.

Done.

Remap Caps Lock To Ctrl

Useless Key No More

Caps Lock must be the most useless key on modern keyboards. I mean who locks their CAPS before typing, apart from angry flamers and the unwary?

Well with that question out the way, here's how to remap the Caps_Lock key to a second Ctrl key using xmodmap.

Create an .xmodmap file in your home directory and copy the following to it:

remove Lock = Caps_Lock
remove Control = Control_L
keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
add Lock = Caps_Lock
add Control = Control_L

Save and close the file.

Create an .xsession file in your home directory and add the following:

xmodmap ./.xmodmap

Save and close the file.

Now type the following to source the .xsession file:

. ./.xsession

Or restart X server. Your Caps_Lock key should be re-mapped to Ctrl.

Test it and see.

Done!

Debian LXDE

Nice 'n' Lite

I installed a test Debian on a free disk I had kicking around, to see what the LXDE was like. I have to admit it is small, lightweight and fast. Its pretty too.

It a dead easy install from disk and comes with some pre-installed software, such as Firefox browser, OpenOffice suite, GIMP, Leafpad, and LXTerminal.

They overlooked the most essential app, Emacs, but you can forgive them for that oversight when the rest of the package is so good.

I used a cut down KDE 3.5 desktop for a long time. That worked well for a while, then tried KDE 4.0 a long time after it was released. Waited for the bugs to die, but they wouldn't. Persistent little buggers. KDE 4 kept crashing and hard locking on my box. So I gave up.

I tried Gnome for a while, but felt it was way too bloated. I don't need or use most of the "essentials" that come bundled with most distros. I'm not knocking it, for most people they are great.

For my usage though just give me, Chrome, Emacs, XTerm and I'm happy. Everything else I installed as I need it. Funky fonts included.

LXDE is lightweight. It uses half the RAM of Gnome on Ubuntu. Running it on Debian the thing is lightening fast and immediately responsive. I was getting so bored with Windows 7, which slowed with each passing day.

So if your looking for a cool fast lightweight desktop, have a look at LXDE. You'll like it!

Hasta luego!

Chrome Iron Browser

Chrome Without The Shine

SRWare, a German software company has released a version of Chrome browser, called SRWare Iron, without Google's call home features.

If you're concerned about privacy issues, go have a look at Iron. The browser is free and fully compatible with Google Chrome. You can use all Chrome extensions and Chrome themes to customize and beautify your browser.

Try it. You might like it.

Using Debian dpkg With .deb Files

Pack It Up

Using Debian, if you run apt-get or aptitude to download and install a package only to find it's not available from the Debian or other repositories, you can download it as a .deb file and install it manually.

After download, a .deb file won't self install. To complete the installation, use dpkg commands as root user.

To install:

dpkg-i filename.deb

dpkg --install filename.deb

Other dpkg commands:

To remove:

dpkg -r filename.deb

dpkg --remove filename.deb

To unpack:

dpkg --unpack filename.deb

To configure:

dpkg --configure filename.deb

Check out the man page for more options.

Done!

Install Chrome On Debian

Browse This

Chrome is not part of the standard Debian software repository, and will not show up if you do

apt-get search google-chrome

or

aptitude search google-chrome.

Both will draw a blank. Instead go to the Chromium Project site and download a developer release.

http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel

Scroll down till you get to Linux and select the 64-bit unstable current version:google-chrome-unstable_current_amd64.deb
If your not running multi-core cpu, or your not sure, go with the i386.deb download.

google-chrome-unstable_current_i386.deb

Once the download is complete, click it and it self-installs, after you give root password.

You need to add a couple of Chrome goodies, like adblock, etc to round it off. I posted on these already.

You can run a search on the blog entries using the search box at the top left hand corner of your browser. Search for something such as chrome and it will pull up all the chrome entries in this blog.

Although its probably familiar territory for most people, I mention this as someone commented on having a problem searching previous blog entries.

Done!

Debian Linux Net Install

Fast And Lean

I was using Windows 7 for a time and couldn't live with how slow the OS was getting. Simple tasks were starting to take an eternity. Running them on a multi-core Intel CPU, with 4GB RAM, and it started feeling like a 486 running XP. Windows bloat is gonna get ya.

I installed Debian Testing this morning using Net Install. It is fast by comparison. Running on the same hardware, there's little to bog it down. Linux has a small footprint, and Debian is lean and mean.

I start with a minimal install and add the stuff I need as I go. Just the essentials: Chrome Browser. Emacs. MPlayer. And a couple of other goodies thrown into the mix.

Now the machine feels lean, fit, fast once more.

Rapido!

Linux Does Not Recognise SATA Disk

Where Is It?

If you try to install Linux on a motherboard that's a few years old, you may find Linux will not see your SATA hard disk drive.

Check your BIOS settings and make sure AHCI mode has been selected. To get into the BIOS, you need to press the delete key at start up.

You'll get a message something like:

Press del to enter setup.

Once your in the BIOS > go to Advanced > Onboard Device Config > SATA Controller Mode > AHCI

Press Esc to backup the menu.

Select Exit & Save

Then reboot and you should see your SATA disk in Linux.

Google Chrome Shortcuts #2 - Linux OS

Address Bar Shortcuts

Use the following shortcuts in the address bar:

Type a search term, then press Enter.	Performs a search using your default search engine.
Type a search engine keyword, press Space, type a search term, and press Enter.	Performs a search using the search engine associated with the keyword.
Begin typing a search engine URL, press Tab when prompted, type a search term, and press Enter.	Performs a search using the search engine associated with the URL.
Ctrl+L	Highlights the URL.
Ctrl+E	Places a '?' in the address bar. Type a search term after the question mark to perform a search using your default search engine.
Press Ctrl+Shift and the left arrow together.	Moves your cursor to the preceding key term in the address bar
Press Ctrl+Shift and the right arrow together.	Moves your cursor to the next key term in the address bar
Ctrl+Backspace	Deletes the key term that precedes your cursor in the address bar
Select an entry in the address bar drop-down menu with your keyboard arrows, then press Shift+Delete.	Deletes the entry from your browsing history, if possible.
Click an entry in the address bar drop-down menu with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Opens the entry in a new tab in the background.
Press Page Up or Page Down when the address bar drop-down menu is visible.	Selects the first or last entry in the drop-down menu.

Webpage Shortcuts

Ctrl+P	Prints your current page.
Ctrl+S	Saves your current page.
Ctrl+R	Reloads your current page.
Esc	Stops the loading of your current page.
Ctrl+F	Opens the find bar.
Ctrl+G or Enter	Finds the next match for your input in the find bar.
Ctrl+Shift+G or Shift+Enter	Finds the previous match for your input in the find bar.
Press Alt and click a link.	Downloads the target of the link.
Drag a link to bookmarks bar	Bookmarks the link.
Ctrl+D	Bookmarks your current webpage.
Space bar	Scrolls down the web page.
Home	Goes to the top of the page.
End	Goes to the bottom of the page.

Text shortcuts

Ctrl+C	Copies highlighted content to the clipboard.
Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert	Pastes content from the clipboard.
Ctrl+Shift+V	Paste content from the clipboard without formatting.
Ctrl+X or Shift+Delete	Deletes the highlighted content and copies it to the clipboard.

Google Chrome Shortcuts #1 - Linux OS

Tab and Window Shortcuts

Ctrl+N	Opens a new window.
Ctrl+T	Opens a new tab.
Ctrl+Shift+N	Opens a new window in incognito mode.
Ctrl+B	Toggles the bookmarks bar on and off.
Press Ctrl+O, then select file.	Opens a file from your computer in Google Chrome.
Press Ctrl and click a link. Or click a link with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Opens the link in a new tab in the background .
Press Ctrl+Shift and click a link. Or press Shift and click a link with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Opens the link in a new tab and switches to the newly opened tab.
Press Shift and click a link.	Opens the link in a new window.
Ctrl+Shift+T	Reopens the last tab you've closed. Google Chrome remembers the last 10 tabs you've closed.
Drag a link to a tab.	Opens the link in the tab.
Drag a link to a blank area on the tab strip.	Opens the link in a new tab.
Drag a tab out of the tab strip.	Opens the tab in a new window.
Drag a tab out of the tab strip and into an existing window.	Opens the tab in the existing window.
Press Esc while dragging a tab.	Returns the tab to its original position.
Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+8	Switches to the tab at the specified position number on the tab strip.
Ctrl+9	Switches to the last tab.
Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+PgDown	Switches to the next tab.
Ctrl+Shift+Tab or Ctrl+PgUp	Switches to the previous tab.
Ctrl+Shift+Q	Closes Google Chrome.
Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4	Closes the current tab or pop-up.
Click a tab with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Closes the tab you clicked.
Right-click, or click and hold either the Back or Forward arrow in the browser toolbar.	Displays your browsing history in the tab.
Press Backspace	Goes to the previous page in your browsing history for the tab.
Press Shift+Backspace	Goes to the next page in your browsing history for the tab.
Click either the Back arrow, Forward arrow, or Go button in the toolbar with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Opens the button destination in a new tab in the background.
Double-click the blank area on the tab strip.	Maximizes or minimizes the window.

Google Chrome Shortcuts #2 - Windows OS

Google Chrome Feature Shortcuts

Alt+F	Opens the Tools menu, which lets you customize and control Google Chrome.
Alt+E	Opens the Page menu, which lets you control the page you're viewing.
Ctrl+B	Toggles the bookmarks bar on and off.
Ctrl+Shift+B	Opens the Bookmark manager.
Ctrl+H	Opens the History page.
Ctrl+J	Opens the Downloads page.
Shift+Esc	Opens the Task Manager.
Shift+Alt+T	Sets the focus on the browser toolbar. Use right and left arrows on the keyboard to navigate to different buttons on the toolbar. Press Shift+F10 to bring up any associated context menu (e.g. browsing history for the Back button). Press Escape to move the focus back to the page.
Ctrl+Shift+J	Opens Developer Tools.
Ctrl+Shift+Delete	Opens the Clear Browsing Data dialog.
F1	Opens the Help Center in a new tab (our favorite).

Address Bar Shortcuts

Use the following shortcuts in the address bar:

Type a search term, then press Enter.	Performs a search.
Type a search engine keyword, press Space, type a search term, and press Enter.	Performs a search using the search engine associated with the keyword.
Begin typing a search engine URL, press Tab at prompt, type search term, and Enter.	Performs a search using the search engine associated with the URL.
Ctrl+Enter	Adds www. and .com to your input in the address bar and open the resulting URL.
Type a URL, then press Alt+Enter.	Opens the URL in a new tab.
F6 or Ctrl+L or Alt+D	Highlights the URL.
Ctrl+K or Ctrl+E	Places a '?' in the address bar. Type a search term after the question mark to perform a search using your default search engine.
Press Ctrl and the left arrow together.	Moves your cursor to the preceding key term in the address bar
Press Ctrl and the right arrow together.	Moves your cursor to the next key term in the address bar
Ctrl+Backspace	Deletes the key term that precedes your cursor in the address bar
Select an entry in the address bar drop-down menu with your keyboard arrows, then press Shift+Delete.	Deletes the entry from your browsing history, if possible.
Click an entry in the address bar drop-down menu with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Opens the entry in a new tab in the background.
Press Page Up or Page Down when the address bar drop-down menu is visible.	Selects the first or last entry in the drop-down menu.

Webpage Shortcuts

Ctrl+P	Prints your current page.
Ctrl+S	Saves your current page.
F5 or Ctrl+R	Reloads your current page.
Esc	Stops the loading of your current page.
Ctrl+F	Opens the find bar.
Ctrl+G or F3	Finds the next match for your input in the find bar.
Ctrl+Shift+G, Shift+F3, or Shift+Enter	Finds the previous match for your input in the find bar.
Click the middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Activates auto-scrolling. As you move your mouse, the page automatically scrolls according to the direction of the mouse.
Ctrl+F5 or Shift+F5	Reloads your current page, ignoring cached content.
Press Alt and click a link.	Downloads the target of the link.
Ctrl+U	Opens the source of your current page.
Drag a link to bookmarks bar	Bookmarks the link.
Ctrl+D	Bookmarks your current webpage.
F11	Opens your page in full-screen mode. Press F11 again to exit full-screen.
Ctrl and +, or press Ctrl and scroll your mousewheel up.	Enlarges everything on the page.
Ctrl and -, or press Ctrl and scroll your mousewheel down.	Makes everything on the page smaller.
Ctrl+0	Returns everything on the page to normal size.
Space bar	Scrolls down the web page.
Home	Goes to the top of the page.
End	Goes to the bottom of the page.
Press Shift and scroll your mousewheel.	Scrolls horizontally on the page.

Text Shortcuts

Ctrl+C	Copies highlighted content to the clipboard.
Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert	Pastes content from the clipboard.
Ctrl+Shift+V	Paste content from the clipboard without formatting.
Ctrl+X or Shift+Delete	Deletes the highlighted content and copies it to the clipboard.

Google Chrome Shortcuts #1 - Windows OS

Tab and Window Shortcuts

Ctrl+N	Opens a new window.
Ctrl+T	Opens a new tab.
Ctrl+Shift+N	Opens a new window in incognito mode.
Press Ctrl+O, then select file.	Opens a file from your computer in Google Chrome.
Press Ctrl and click a link. Or click a link with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Opens the link in a new tab in the background .
Press Ctrl+Shift and click a link. Or press Shift and click a link with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Opens the link in a new tab and switches to the newly opened tab.
Press Shift and click a link.	Opens the link in a new window.
Ctrl+Shift+T	Reopens the last tab you've closed. Google Chrome remembers the last 10 tabs you've closed.
Drag a link to a tab.	Opens the link in the tab.
Drag a link to a blank area on the tab strip.	Opens the link in a new tab.
Drag a tab out of the tab strip.	Opens the tab in a new window.
Drag a tab out of the tab strip and into an existing window.	Opens the tab in the existing window.
Press Esc while dragging a tab.	Returns the tab to its original position.
Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+8	Switches to the tab at the specified position number on the tab strip.
Ctrl+9	Switches to the last tab.
Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+PgDown	Switches to the next tab.
Ctrl+Shift+Tab or Ctrl+PgUp	Switches to the previous tab.
Alt+F4	Closes the current window.
Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4	Closes the current tab or pop-up.
Click a tab with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Closes the tab you clicked.
Right-click, or click and hold either the Back or Forward arrow in the browser toolbar.	Displays your browsing history in the tab.
Press Backspace, or Alt and the left arrow together.	Goes to the previous page in your browsing history for the tab.
Press Shift+Backspace, or Alt and the right arrow together.	Goes to the next page in your browsing history for the tab.
Press Ctrl and click either the Back arrow, Forward arrow, or Go button in the toolbar. Or click either button with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Opens the button destination in a new tab in the background.
Double-click the blank area on the tab strip.	Maximizes or minimizes the window.
Alt+Home	Opens your homepage in your current window.

Emacs Time Stamp

When Was That?

If you want to enter today date and time, Emacs does not have an inbuilt function. Here's one that will do the job:

; Add date/time stamp to buffer

(defun insert-time()

(interactive)

(insert (format-time-string "%Y-%m-%d-%R")))

; Bind it to F8 key

(global-set-key (kbd "") 'insert-time)

Add these lines to your .emacs config file

Restart Emacs and press F8 for instant time stamp.

You can bind it to another key if your already using F8. Choose any key you like.

Hasta Luego!

Champions League

Not!!!

Its been a while since I posted about Soccer, after tonight's results, I felt the urge to get something down. Manchester United were knocked out by Bayern Munich. Last night Barcelona thumped Arsenal and sent them on their way, tail between their legs. Liverpool were thoroughly beaten by Lyon weeks ago and Inter Milan thumped Chelsea and showed them how it should be done.

How sweet that must have been for Jose Mourinho the ex-Chelsea coach, now at Inter Milan. Revenge tastes sweet. His 'V' sign to Abramovich.

So its on to the Semi-Finals and no English clubs left in the competition. Huh? How come?

Only a few weeks ago, with 3 English teams in the competition, some online papers were touting the possibility of an all English final, and the very least an English Semi.

The truth unfolds. English football has stagnated. Spanish and Italian teams have forged ahead, with bold tactics and heavy investment on players and coaches. It was only a couple of years ago it was plain to see how strong English teams were against their continental counterparts.

This year, no English team makes it to the Semi's.

Liverpool were regular visitors to Quarter, Semi, and Finals. Chelsea too. Manchester United and Arsenal also pitched in from time-to-time.

After the 4-1 caning by Barcelona, Arsenal must look for new inspiration. Maybe its time for Wenger to hang up his training boots? Barcelona beat Arsenal in the Champions League Final 2006 and have failed to improve since then.

Manchester United have also rans in Europe since beating Chelsea for the Cup in 2008. Last year they were beaten in the final by Barcelona. Chelsea came close two seasons ago have joined the list of also rans.

Liverpool are playing so badly they will not qualify for Champions League football next season. Maybe its time for Rafa (Liverpools coach) to take the money and run.

The English teams have lost ground. They are no longer the dominant force in European football. Its the Spanish silly.

Maybe a revival will happen next year. I'm not sure. The problems run deep. The Premier League seems to produce a weaker side technically. When you watch Barcelona play they have a melodic rhythm to their football and a cheeky opportunism in the penalty area. Their set play's are varied.

Ever seen Liverpool labour with their corner set pieces? Watch and you may get it. They lack imagination. Watch Gerard thump it into the middle each time or the only other variation; the short pass to a team mate then thumped into the middle.

What ever happened to the man at the front post? Or the far post? Or the guy on the edge of the box for shot a shot at goal? Or the guy on the edge of the box to lob it in for a header? Or lay it off for a team mate in front of goal? No. Leave it to Gerrard.

Liverpool certainly lack imagination when it comes to set pieces. And their football in general is... how can I put it? Dire! Lacklustre! Mediocre! Yes that's it. Mediocre.

Arsenal play lovely football. Their game lacks a couple of elements. Steel and Guile.

Steel - Arsenal need a hard man at the back to kick the hell out of attacking opponents. Let them know who's in charge here. The miss Patrick Viera. They lack backbone. Since Viera left, Arsenal have been a shadow of their former selves.

Guile - Arsenal desperately need a goal scorer. Yes they have Bentner (stop laughing please), but his ratio of goals to attempts is so poor, I reckon my mule could match it.

Wenger - Maybe its time for the French maestro to move on or move upstairs. He's been at Arsenal for since 1996, that's 14 years, a long long time in modern footballing terms. In that time Barcelona have had 5 notable coaches. Real Madrid have had 6.

Sticking with one coach for so long allows for continuity, but has its problems? Most notably a lack of new ideas. Fresh perspectives. Coaches peak then fade slowly away. Unless the coach has been spectacularly successful, a new coach is needed.

Manchester United have been dominant in the Premier League, less so in Europe. Their manager has Ferguson has been at the helm since 1986. Can anyone remember back that far? A staggering 26 years. He's 68 now, and unlikely to lead them for much longer.

Chelsea owner Abramovich has deep pockets and sunk millions into creating the force the is Chelsea football club. They have won the Premier League but not the Champions League. Abramovich wants them to play "pretty" football ala Barcelona.

They are not there yet. Having gone through a swath of managers in the last 6 years, none has yet delivered style and substance. Abramovich may have to go talk to his bank manager again before his dream of lifting the Champions League Trophy becomes reality.

Liverpool? Well there's not a lot to say about them at the present time. They are in the midst of a slump. And it will continue till Benitez is shown the door, along with the American chancers.

Benitez has run out of ideas. Liverpool have a core of excellent players. They need a few more and one other thing! A new manager.

Its late and I have get going. I have more to add to this post. I'll try to finish it over the weekend.

* * *

Emacs And Google Chrome

Fine Combo

Google Chrome has a great Extension - Edit With Emacs! How good is that?

You can now edit text in your favorite editor using familiar keys for navigation and editing.

This has to be in the top 10 Chrome Extensions.

Great.

Google Chrome Dictionary

What Word?

I've been using Google's Chrome browser for sometime, though it lacked several features available in Firefox. The biggest drawback was the absence of adblock, but I learned to live without adblock for a while. Adblock is now available for Chrome.

The problem for the fledgeling browser was the lack of Extensions or what Firefox calls Add-ons. This has been fixed with a plethora of extensions made available now and more coming on stream each week.

I installed a number of Chrome Extensions this morning and they are brilliant. Google Dictionary is just great. Come across a word you don't know or cant remember? Double click and the meaning is there.

Before Google's Dictionary Extension, I would launch a tab, go to dictionary.com, type the word and wade through the various results.

What a time saver. This thing is just so fast.