A death in the family left me with some prescription drugs.  I thought that I shouldn't just toss them or flush them, but wasn't sure what to do with them.  Turns out, a lot of sources begin by saying "don't just throw them a way or flush them down the toilet," then end by saying to throw them away or flush them down the toilet.

Experts say the safest way to get rid of unwanted drugs is through a community "take back drugs" day, a collection center, or to deliver them to a pharmacy that accepts them.  Unfortunately, the timing or the time it takes can make those options difficult.

Near as I can tell, the most convenient and proper, if not best, way to dispose of old prescription drugs is to:

• 
  If they're on the FDA "Flush List," flush them down the toilet.
  
• If they're not on the Flush List, put them into a container, like a bag or a can.
• Add water to dissolve them.
• Add something like cat litter or coffee grounds to disguise them from people who might find and want to ingest them.
• The put the container in the trash.

To preserve your privacy, it's a good idea to remove labels (frustrating) or cover up identifying
information on bottles before throwing them away.

Oddly, these these recommendations aren't intended to protect the environment.  The flush list is to get rid of especially dangerous drugs in a way that keeps people from finding and using them.  The coffee grounds or cat litter are to disguise the drugs, not to "deactivate" them.

According to the FDA, it's not the flushing of unused drugs that's causing problems for fish; the fish are getting drugged by medication that people take, then excrete into the sewage system.  For instance, an anti-diabetes drug can cause male fish to become somewhat female.  Anti-depression drugs in human waste causes some male fish to lose interest in female fish.   Contraceptives can cause some fish to stop eluding predators.  Natural predators.  There's no evidence that salting rivers with contraceptives will up your fishing game.

While we're on the subject, the problem goes the other way too.  People shouldn't take antibiotics intended for fish.  Fish take antibiotics?  People take fish antibiotics?  

Lost Google Maps: Found, maybe

If you've created a bunch of maps in Google Maps, you maybe getting this error message when you try to get to the older ones:

My Places encountered a temporary error and could not load some items. Please try again later.

People are complaining about it on forums.  If you're struggling with this, here's something you can try.

Clear your cookies, log back in to Google Maps and try again to load the older maps.

Here are the steps:

• Click on the menu in the upper right corner of Chrome
• Go down to Tools
• Then select Clear Browsing Data...
• Click on: Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data
• On the "Obliterate the following items from:" line I used the last 4 weeks, but you might have to try a few depending on how many cookies you're willing to get rid of to get to your maps (getting rid of cookies means you may have to log back into various websites and you'll lose your history on some)
• Go back to maps and refresh the page
• Try to load your older maps

This worked for me, at least a few times.  Then it stopped working.

Since it's at best a workaround, not a solution, it's a good idea to get the maps you want onto your hard drive or some other place.  Here's how:

In classic maps:

• Open the map
• Click on KML
• Save to the place where you want it

Select KML at the lower right

In the new Google Maps:

• Open the map
• Click on the folder icon that's to the left of Add Layers
• From the menu choose Export to KML
• Save to the place where you want it

OK, so now you've got your maps in a safe place.  What next?

Well, you can always open them in Google Earth.  If you really want them in Google Maps, it takes a little bit of work.  In the old days, meaning with the old Google Maps, you could just put the KML on a server (or Dropbox) and open it up.  

The new Google Maps doesn't open KML, at least not yet.  Google is hinting that it may in the future.   Here's the official word:

You can import CSV, TSV, or XLSX files, My Maps, or spreadsheets from Google Drive. KML import is not currently supported.

Since the new maps does open csv (comma separated values), you just have to convert your KML file to csv.  How?

One ways is to download a KML to CSV converter like this one.  For a selection, just Google "KML to CSV converter."

Then import the CSV file into Maps Engine Lite as demonstrated this tutorial.

Quick Terminal in Ubuntu Oneiric

If you've tried to open the terminal using alt+F2 in the new Ubuntu (Oneiric), it probably didn't work.  That's because it has a new shortcut: Alt+Ctl+T.

I'm sure it's a fine shortcut, but it's hard to reverse years of habit.  Feel the same?

It's easy to switch back.  Go to:

System Settings > Keyboard > Launchers.
Select Launch Terminal.
Press Backspace to clear Alt+Ctl+T,
Then press Alt+F2.  

You're done.

Supposedly, you can skip the step of clearing the old shortcut and just hold down the new one for a moment to replace it.  Didn't work for me.

The truth of the kernel

For various reasons I sometimes have to know what Linux kernel I'm using with Ubuntu.  It's easy, but I always forget how, so this is as much for my own use as anything else:

To find your current Linux kernel, at the command prompt:

uname -r (quick, short reply)

uname -a (same with a little more information)

The difference between those two is that -r just tells you the version of the Linux kernel.

l@l:~$ uname -r

2.6.32-21-generic

That's pretty straightforward.  The first two numbers, in this case the 2 and the 6, are major and minor releases.  The third number, 32, is the version.  The fourth number, 21, reflects the back-ports that are incorporated into the kernel.

An rc.x at the end means the version is a release candidate, the last revisions before a version is ready for use.

If you're curious, you can browse through the history of Linux 2.6.x.  Or back to the very beginning.  If you want to how Linux kernel numbering has changed over the years and why it changed, you can read the history, complete with primary documents.

Chances are, you're using an operating system that makes use of the Linux kernel, like Ubuntu, Red Hat, Open SUSE and so forth.  These are sometimes called "flavors" of Linux.  Frankly, I find they all taste the same, but they look and operate a little differently.

By using -a, you'll get a response like this:

l@l:~$ uname -a

Linux l 2.6.32-21-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 16 08:09:38 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Another way to get information about your kernel is by looking at the /proc file.  The command is:

cat /proc/version

The result, will look like this:

l@l:~$ cat /proc/version

Linux version 2.6.32-21-generic (buildd@yellow) (gcc version 4.4.3 (Ubuntu 4.4.3-4ubuntu5) ) #32-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 16 08:09:38 UTC 2010

What does it all mean?  

• Linux version 2.6.32-21-generic The complete Linux version.
• (buildd@yellow) The username and host name of the person who compiled the kernel.  Thanks buildb, home everything's going well at yellow.
• (gcc version 4.4.3 (Ubuntu 4.4.3-4ubuntu5) ) The version of the compiler buildb used.
• #32-Ubuntu SMP The type of the kernel (SMP means Symmetric Multi-Processing, which means the kernel makes use of multi-core processing)
• Fri Apr 16 08:09:38 UTC 2010 The time and day that the kernel was compiled.

Git a minute: organize your email, the easy way

Get a lot of email?  Sometimes it hard to keep the inbox from growing.  It's tempting to go through it as quickly as possible, skimming the important stuff, saving some for later and deleting the rest.

Those last two things (saving and deleting) offer you some opportunities to get control of your inbox, rather than just getting through it. And if you do it strategically, you can do in in a minute, literally.

Each time you clear your inbox, take a minute to set up a filter that handles the saving or deleting of one message.

Here's an example: the online statement from your gas company, an investment account, or your mortgage.  If you use Gmail (or another web mail service) you can click:

More actions > Filter messages like these

And then set some rules for handling the message, like storing it for the day you pay bills, permanently storing it (if it's on autopay), or starring it so it's an obvious priority when the next one comes in.

You can do that in 60 seconds.

With some creative use of the filtering rules, you can be amazingly precise in what you do with what message, like highlighting a bill you have to pay, but saving or deleting the company's newsletter, even if they come from the same email address.  You can learn some tips and tricks here.

If you get Facebook alerts, you can star responses to things you've posted, save for later other messages and delete the list of birthdays.

If you commit to permanently handling one message each time you read email, in a week you'll notice how much faster you can get through your inbox.

Installing Gimp Plugins

If you ever want to install plugins for The Gimp, the image editing app, you'll have to first install the gimp-dev and glib-dev packages.  It's easy.  You can use the Synaptic Package Manager or apt-get.  But the names are tricky.  Instead of gimp-dev and glib-dev, they're called:

• libgimp2.0-dev
• libglib2.0-dev

Replace a Key on a Sony Vaio Laptop

The shift key popped off the keyboard on my laptop. Don't ask. It's a Sony Vaio VPCS111FM with a chiclet-style keyboard.

Putting it back on wasn't hard, it just took a little while to figure out.

After the key came off, I had a hole in the keyboard that looked like this.

And the key and a U-shaped pin that came flying off when the key went.

The underside of the key has two tiny clamps at the top: one for holding the pin and one for attaching the key to a bracket on the keyboard.  The top set of brackets is for the pin.

The pin just snaps into the upper set of clamps.

On the keyboard, theres are two upside-down-U-shaped brackets that you have to slide the legs of the pin into.

There's also a plastic bracket that I've lifted up with a screwdriver here.  It has two pins sticking out from the top that snap into the bracket clamps on the key.

You have to slide the legs of the pin into the brackets on the side, then snap the bracket clamps on the key onto the pins sticking out from the bracket.

I slid the pin into the holes, then slid the top of the key down into the hole in the keyboard so that the bracket clamps were just behind the pins on the bracket.  Then I used a small screwdriver to push the pins into the clamps until they clicked.  It's a very quiet click.

The picture shows how I had it positioned.  Didn't have enough hands to snap a picture while using the screwdriver to push the bracket pins into the clamps.  It's pretty straightforward though.  Just move the key and the bracket so the pins are right between the arms of the clamp, then push the pin in.

After that, just lower the bottom of the key and push down so that the bottom snaps into place.  Should be good until the next time you drop your computer.