An Ode to Pens

So, I'm always on the lookout for a good pen. I don't know about you, but I'm very particular about my pen. I'm like Goldilocks. This ink is too runny, this ink is too light, this pen looks silly, etc. etc. etc. Every now and then I'll find a really great pen, and that happens to be the one that decides to explode in my pocket.

I have been collecting awesome-looking pens (or pen holders really, designed to use ink refills) for some time. Here's the list I've gathered so far:

   

   

The Pen Project:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/894128597/the-pen-project

Render K Pen:
http://karaskustoms.com/pens/render-k.html

Pen Type-A:
http://shop.cwandt.com/products/pen-type-a

The Bolt:
http://karaskustoms.com/pens/the-bolt.html


The only real question on my mind is how do they actually write. Anyone use these pens? Have any other good pen recommendations? Let me know!

Fixing Broadcom Wireless Issues in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

If you've ever seen this error:

2012-04-27 14:04:43,723 WARNING: modinfo for module wl failed: ERROR: modinfo: could not find module wl

2012-04-27 14:04:43,724 WARNING: /sys/module/wl/drivers does not exist, cannot rebind wl driver

well, you might have a problem with your Broadcom wireless driver. Or rather, Ubuntu has a problem. I found several possible solutions here and here.

First, try:

sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source


If that doesn't work, try:

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

or even:

sudo modprobe b43


If none of this works, check the second link for more suggestions.

Merging files with mkvmerge

In a follow-on to my previous post, I have a method for merging media files back together. After searching for a long (LONG) time for  an easy, efficient way to do this (that was at least as easy and efficient as the previous method for splitting), I finally came across mkvmerge. This tool is part of the mkvtoolnix package for working with Matroska (.mkv) files.

mkvmerge can handle many different file type formats. For simply appending media files together, the syntax is:

mkvmerge -o output.mkv input1 + input2


And voilà! So, do you have a different/better way to create media files? Let's hear it!