#!/bin/bash

STRING=$1
STRLEN=${#STRING}

A=${STRING:1:$STRLEN-2}
echo ${STRING:0:1}${#A}${STRING:$STRLEN-1:$STRLEN-1}

Try running internationalization on it.

So tracks going on your Ubunty Hardy you just need to install a few packages, most importantly ruby, ruby gems and sqlite 3 support. Then you just need to enable the sqlite3 gem for Ruby on Rails. Copy paste commands below:

sudo apt-get install rake rubygems libsqlite3-ruby
sudo gem install sqlite3-ruby

Then just follow the instructions on the tracks website. But, if your are lazy as me you can just copy paste the information below, which is a nice quick cheat sheet:

Get tracks, unzip into a folder. Go into that folder and edit the configuration file, making it look like the example shown here for sqlite3:

gedit config/database.yml

development:
adapter: sqlite3
database: db/tracks-dev.db

test:
adapter: sqlite3
database: ":memory:"

production:
adapter: sqlite3
database: db/tracks-main.db

Change a variable in config/environment.rb by putting whatever in it:

gedit config/environment.rb

SALT = "MakeThisYourRandomPhraseToGenerateSalt"

Build it:

rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production

Run it:

./script/server -e production

And that’s it, you should just be able to point your browser at http://localhost:3000 and give it a try. I personally don’t think that Tracks is my cup of tee, but it’s worth a shot.

One a side note, this is probably my last post before my summer break, so I’ll be back in a couple of weeks, I hope.

After using apt-get to install the ubuntustudio-theme package, I was amazed at the first theme that bring dark windows with light background not compromising usability for a dark theme. Don’t take my word for it, here’s a screenshot:

So far, every dark theme I encounter before is a try at fail mostly because they are not usable. Attention is brought to lines, row or text, like Gtk TreeViews in evolution by using a bold font on a dark background, or a little icon that glows just a little bit more than the rest. This is hardly usable, since you fail to get the visual hints needed to quickly parse through an inbox for example. The same goes for the desktop calendar. Try a dark theme and find your events on it and let me know.

This one doesn’t fail like the rest. I’m not saying it’s a perfect theme, I’m not sure about the window borders (too thick), or about the icons, or even the bright blue highlight colors (but it’s customizable). I’m gonna stick with it, play with it some more, and be happy for a while.