So… Gaim is working… I reverted to a previous version of Pango, and got the first error I posted about. I manged to work around the problem, rather than fix it… I simply reordered the directories in my path. hehehe…. 
this post dedicated to Kayla…
I can’t help but reiterate that Google’s present course of action clearly leads directly to world domination. Just check out this recent post on slashdot… Hey: Better Google than Microsoft, right?
When I use pango 1.8, I get the aforementioned error. When I upgrade to pango 1.10.1, I get the following error:
(gaim:716): Pango-WARNING **: /usr/local/lib/pango/1.4.0/modules/pango-basic-fc.so: undefined symbol: pango_is_zero_width
Failed to load Pango module for id: ‘BasicScriptEngineFc’
(gaim:716): Pango-WARNING **: /usr/local/lib/pango/1.4.0/modules/pango-basic-fc.so: undefined symbol: pango_is_zero_width
Failed to load Pango module for id: ‘BasicScriptEngineFc’
(gaim:716): Pango-WARNING **: /usr/local/lib/pango/1.4.0/modules/pango-basic-fc.so: undefined symbol: pango_is_zero_width
Failed to load Pango module for id: ‘BasicScriptEngineFc’
(gaim:716): Pango-WARNING **: /usr/local/lib/pango/1.4.0/modules/pango-basic-fc.so: undefined symbol: pango_is_zero_width
Failed to load Pango module for id: ‘BasicScriptEngineFc’
(gaim:716): Pango-WARNING **: /usr/local/lib/pango/1.4.0/modules/pango-basic-fc.so: undefined symbol: pango_is_zero_width
Failed to load Pango module for id: ‘BasicScriptEngineFc’
(gaim:716): Pango-WARNING **: /usr/local/lib/pango/1.4.0/modules/pango-basic-fc.so: undefined symbol: pango_is_zero_width
Failed to load Pango module for id: ‘BasicScriptEngineFc’
(gaim:716): Pango-WARNING **: /usr/local/lib/pango/1.4.0/modules/pango-basic-fc.so: undefined symbol: pango_is_zero_width
Failed to load Pango module for id: ‘BasicScriptEngineFc’
(gaim:716): Pango-CRITICAL **: _pango_engine_shape_shape: assertion `PANGO_IS_FONT (font)’ failedPango-ERROR **: file shape.c: line 75 (pango_shape): assertion failed: (glyphs->num_glyphs > 0)
aborting…
Aborted
And for the sake of speaking english… Kayla is the coolest person in the world…
Yeah… So you know how garnome is nice enough to build all the dependencies for me, even when I already have them installed, thus creating duplicate installations? Yeah. That happened… Then gaim wouldn’t compile. Then I got pissed off, deleted a bunch of libraries, recompiled them, and then gaim compiled. All seemed well, so I typed gaim-d into my console. There were several pango errors that made me want to run myself into a wall. I downgraded pango, and again executed gaim -d, and again, was met with despair:
gaim: symbol lookup error: gaim: undefined symbol: g_mkdir_with_parents
dns[9235]: Oops, father has gone, wait for me, wait…!
dns[9232]: Oops, father has gone, wait for me, wait…!
[mario@mario gaim]$
In my library deleteing spree, I deleted an installation of pango from /usr, as there was an installation of pango in /home/mario/garnome… There were, of course, some programs that were linked to the pango libraries I deleted. I was able to get around that by using a symbolic link… My guess is that the present error has it’s roots in a library that is linked to an old installation of pango or GTK, or something that is no longer installed… Now I can only hope some genius will find me on Google and set things straight :D…
Or did I ever leave? That is the question. Whenever anyone asked, I simply replied “I use KDE. Gnome’s better; Gnome’s more stable. KDE’s sexier.” The looks are all KDE really has going for it. I’ll take gnome any day. I just compiled 2.12.1. Its nice. A few rough edges, but I think I’ve done a good job getting things working. Two posts in five minutes. Frightening.
In other news, I may have accidentally started what could have potentially become world war III. Lets just hope this negotiations don’t turn out like the ones in episode one…
I spent several hours today setting an orienteering course up at camp Webster (a BSA camp). For those of you don’t know, an orienteering course is a finite set of [hidden] points (in 3-space) that persons, armed with maps and compasses work to find. (I’m sounding more mathematical every day.) In short, there are a bunch of points on a map, and corresponding markers out in the woods. Participants must find these markers using only a map and a compass. (i) In my many years of scouting, I have set up many orienteering courses, and completed even more than I’ve set up (in record time, of course). This was the first time I used a GPS while setting up the orienteering course (without forsaking the proven compass and map method.). I must say: Those things are pretty damned cool. I was able to mark each point on the orienteering course on the GPS, which allowed me to easily take back bearings to verify the results we obtained using our compasses.
Time to get into some theoretical leadership stuff about the human mind… If a person gives you peanut butter, jelly, knives and bread, you’ll probably make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich; if a person gives you a map and a compass, you’ll probably use them both to complete an orienteering course. In my years of orienteering, I have seen many people fall victim to the evils of compasses. Nothing against compasses, but who wants to take a bearing and pace 1500 paces on that bearing? When pacing such a long distance, the margin for error is very high, as I demonstrated today. Ok, so you can use a compass; I bet you feel special. I’ll beat you without one. If a marker is 1500 paces away, but right off a trail, don’t waste your time pacing that. Walk to the trail, then figure things out from there. This leads me to an interesting anecdote. There was no way I was going to walk 1500 paces and maintain a constant direction, so I let my father and company do that, while I walked my fat rear-end to the nearest trail (which isn’t on the map; I’m just that good.). I set one waypoint on my way, and beat them to the correct location by ten minutes. I actually had to go find them because they were 500+ feet off. Without further adieu, I give you the top x guidelines to better orienteering.
All that said, I think I’ll train an elite group of persons and call them ‘my’ orienteering team. With them, i shall claim first prize at the tournament that I have not officially created yet.
Since Google Toolbar (beta) for Firefox came out, I’ve been having a problem with text boxes turning yellow at random. This has been quite a problem as not all font colors show up well in that ugly shade of yellow. The grey that is used in my comment form, for instance, cannot be read at all. I went through great lengths to figure out what could be causing those yellow boxes. As my blog is valid XHTML 1.1 and CSS, it clearly couldn’t be that, so what could it be? I was logging into my gmail account today, and something about Auto Fill (a feature of the Google toolbar) popped up. I started poking around a bit, and found an option that caused text boxes to turn yellow when autofill thought it could fill them in. That’s nice. I could have filled them in, but they were yellow, so I couldn’t even see what I was typing.
In case anyone was wondering, the 79th natural number that is divisible by 3 or 4 but not 6 is 236. Don’t ask me why, but it clearly isn’t an accident that (3)(79) = 237…
Greg on his death bed: “Just one more digit of pi and I’ll set the world record…”. For those of you who know me, I’m sure you understood that…
I was just looking through Awstats. Checkout the search terms that have led to my blog this month:
First, I’d like you to note that I’m clearly not the only person who thinks myspace sucks. Secondly, notice that two of those are math related. Thirdy, yes, indeed, myspace does crash firefox, but are my ambitions really that funny?