Adjusting scrollbar width on Lubuntu

I recently updated my Lubuntu and noticed that the scrollbars are now nearly too thin to see. On a netbook, it's almost impossible. Fortunately, it's easy to fix.

1. Run this command in a terminal:
   sudo leafpad /usr/share/themes/Lubuntu-default/gtk-2.0/scrollbar.rc
2. Edit this line in the resulting document that pops up:
   GtkRange::slider-width = 20(replace "20" with your choice. 20 is a bit thick but that's how I like it. That's what she said)
3. Logout and Log-in again. Done.

Source: http://forum.lxde.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31638#p48810

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Find the Korean names of foreign / English / American movies

PROBLEM: 
You are chatting with your Korean coworkers at the bar after work. Everyone is going around the table talking about their favorite movie. It comes to your turn. You confidently say "Ernest Goes to Camp" but they have no idea what you're talking about. What was this called in Korean?

Nowadays "western" movies tend to carry their titles directly over into hangul. Thus, Robocop is 로보캅, not 로봇 경찰관. But others have had their titles translated into Korean. Frozen, for example, is 겨울왕국 (Winter Kingdom). This is especially true with (1.) children's movies, and (2.) movies released prior to 2000. What's the easiest way to find these Korean titles?

SOLUTION:
Simple. Use the Naver Movies site. Just type in the film's name in English, and the results page will list the name it goes by in Korea. Thus you can do a quick check on your phone and explain that your favorite film is called 어니스트 1 - 캠핑 가다 and take in the spray of comically/exaggeratedly spit beer as the shock of someone liking this movie overwhelms them.

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Watch current Korean movies with English subtitles at the cinema

PROBLEM:
You're living in Korea, and want to experience the culture by going to the cinema (or theater for you culture-less drones) and watching Korean movies. But of course, you don't speak Korean, and the theater (yes, theater, f*ck you for judging me) websites are a filthy mess of flashing navigation even if you could read Korean. But you know movies are showing with English subtitles along the bottom.
How is the lonely expat to know where to watch these films?

SOLUTIONS:
Frequently check the KOBIZ website (http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/jsp/schedule/subtitMovie.jsp). If a Korean film is playing with English subs, it'll list it here. Sometimes this page is blank (no showings listed) and other times it will randomly spring to life with information, so bookmark it and come back to it now and then.
and/or
"Like" this awesome Facebook group "All in Korean: with English subs please" (https://www.facebook.com/AllInKoreanWithEnglishSubsPlease)These fools straight up keep the 411 flowing. Updated way more often than the KOBIZ site.
Or if you are an RSS OG like me, get their page RSS feed here (https://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?format=rss20&id=405107282941022)

And, if you're looking for foreign-language films with Korean subs other than Hollywood crap, I suggest this place.

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Rooting your Android phone in Korea with Tegrak Kernel

PROBLEM:
You bought an awesome Samsung phone in Korea, and want to root it. But because it's the "Korean" version and not a US or International version, it's a pain in the butt. Custom ROMs like CyanogenMod don't seem to work. Fret not: here's the easiest way to do it.

SOLUTION:
In two words: Tegrak Kernel.

Disclaimer: Everything here is my personal opinion. I'm neither an Android developer nor paid endorser. I am just a guy who spent a hellofalotof time trying to figure this out. There could be an easier way out there. For me, this worked, and I hope it might work for you.

I'm not going to lie to you-- there is a huge variety of custom ROMs out there for Korean-model phones. The Korean developer community is, unsurprisingly, extremely prolific. But if you're like me, you don't really care about all variety of custom builds and wacky configurations and bleeding-edge features. Also, you don't read Korean. You just want your phone rooted so you can get rid of the bloatware and make it as speedy as possible.

Why choose Tegrak?

It works on almost all Samsung smartphones, from the humble Galaxy S1 to the Note and S4. I also like Tegrak because it's relatively low-risk: it is NOT a custom ROM per se. It's only a kernel, so you are still keeping whatever stock ROM your phone came with. In addition to giving you root, it has Overclock features and a Lagfix, though in my experience the lagfix is less noticeable on newer models.

How do I install it?

Basically the whole process boils down to this:

1. Download the files for your phone from the internet.
2. Install them via Odin (see below).
3. Install the Tegrek app from the Google Play Store.

That's it.

Tell me more, tell me more

What? You don't know what I'm talking about? Alright, I'll give you a bit more.

Step 1: Though there are many mirrors, hosts, fileshare lockers where you can find the files from a Google search, skip that crap and go to the source. Find your phone's model ("SHW-M110S" for example), and click through to that page. Scroll down.

See what he did here? There are multiple version of the Tegrak Kernel files, for each phone model and even for each Android version for each phone model. Therefore it's important that you PAY ATTENTION here. Don't go downloading any old "Tegrak Kernel Build" files. You need the ones for YOUR phone and YOUR Android stock software. So double-check that you're downloading the right files.

Scroll down to where the files are available for download (near the bottom of the page, just above the comments section. You'll see the little zip-file icons). Again, find the files for YOUR PHONE MODEL. Only the latest verisions will be displayed, so you might need to click the blue bar reading 이전 버전 다운로드 접기 to expand the list to see all the offerings. Check the end of the filename before downloading to make sure that it matches the software version displayed in your phone's "About Phone" (or similar) settings. You might not need (or even be able to use) the "latest build" but whatever.

Download the files. Note that some are in 2~3 pieces, so you might need to combine the files with 7zip after downloading.

Step 2: Shit just got real. Time to flash. You are going to need a copy of the Windows program Odin, which Tegrak conveniently makes available here:
http://pspmaster.tistory.com/attachment/cfile26.uf@250F504551E3A519103474.zip
This will allow you to flash the kernel files to your phone. THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO DO THIS, AND ALSO THIS COULD BRICK YOUR PHONE but it always works for me so please do not complain if it does something wacky. If you are seriously in trouble, there is a lot of useful information at the XDA forums. Search there for your model number.

Turn off your phone and put it into recovery mode (I feel lazy, so Google it yourself to see how to do this; on mine it was holding down the Home button and Power button simultaneously).

Oh, by the way: You're going to need to Samsung USB drivers for your phone and you need to ensure that KIES is not running. How?

1. Install KIES. Somewhere there is a menu option for installing USB drivers. Do it.
2. Uninstall KIES. Done.

IT IS TIME. You might want to follow along visually by looking at the screenshots he provides.
Load the Tegrak Kernel files in the "PDA" option of Odin. Connect the phone (which is in recovery mode). The yellow light in Odin should show up. "Start" the process. Let it do it's magic for several minutes. When it's all done, the phone should reboot. Let it do it's thing. Don't get antsy. Hopefully, you're done.

Step 3 should be obvious. Note that there is a free version and a "donation" version. Both are identical except for ads in the app itself, which you will only likely use once. This guy has done an amazing job, so once the process is done (and you've used the free version to set it all up), please consider replacing the app with the Donation version (like I did). It's a couple bucks to bring new life to your phone (I used my prior phone, Galaxy S1, for over 3 years thanks to the speed boost from Tegrak).

Open the app, enable rooting, and feel the rush of power surge to your brain. Enable lagfix and enjoy a speedy phone. Enable overclock and burn a hole in your pants don't bother.

Final thoughts

Again I am NOT an Android developer. I'm just sharing what worked for me. Please do not ask me how to fix X, Y, or Z because I, like you, am just a normal guy who scoured the internet looking for information. XDA Forums have it. I hope this little guide was helpful.

Major props to Tegrak for making this possible. Donate to him, minions!

P.S. If, like me, you did all this and discovered that your Galaxy S1 now had very little space for installing apps (an unfortunate side-effect of the lagfix process), I recommend Matpclub Hackpunch. It plays nice with Tegrak and gave me a much larger install space.

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Open Hangul (.hwp) files in Microsoft Word or HWP Viewer

Let's say a Korean co-worker sent you an .hwp file, but you don't have Hangul Word Processor on your computer. You can choose one of these methods to open it:

1.  Stand-alone HWP Viewer application 

Windows

The 2014 version of Hangul Office seems to no longer offer a stand-alone viewer. However, for now, viewers for previous versions seem to be working well. While no longer officially available (I can't find them on the Hancom website, at least), several other sources have them for downloading such as [here], [here] or [here]. You could also try the 60-day trial but no thanks.

 Mac

Interstingly, Hancom does still officially offer the Mac (.pkg file) version of the viewer. [Click the disk icon in item #2 to start the download]. Or you can grab it from the Mac App Store.

Android

There's an Hancom Viewer app and a full mobile Hancom Office app. Sure, if you're desperate.

2. Microsoft Word converter

Microsoft themselves seem to offer a converting program that will let you open .hwp files in Word (File -> Open) or batch-convert files to .docx.

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Automatically post you Blogger, Blogspot posts to Twitter, no 3rd party app needed

PROBLEM:
You have an absolutely amazing blog, but no one uses RSS anymore. Google will automatically share your Blogger posts to Google+ but come on, who actually uses that? You could have your Blogger posts sent to Twitter using IFTTT, but why bother?

SOLUTION:
Ok, well it's sort of a 3rd-party app. The sort answer is: Feedburner.
If you enabled "Subscribe via Email" then your blog's feed is already burned.
Login to Feedburner -> click blog's title -> "Publicize" -> "Socialize"
Here you can connect your Twitter account. Voilà!

More here: https://support.google.com/feedburner/answer/167800?hl=en

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Fixing encoding problems with Korean subtitles

So, you've managed to get a legal, paid-for copy of your favorite film, and want to share the moment with your Korean-speaking friend. You dim the lights, turn up the speakers, and hit play, only to have the mood ruined by this:

Ah yes, the random characters that ruin any 미드 (= 미국 드라마 = American dramas) viewing. Your face now looks like Hotch here. What can you do about this?

I can recommend basically two choices:

1. Use GOM Player.
   Seriously. I know you love your VLC or whatever, but trust me, fighting with your video player to make it accept your subtitle file is more frustration than it's worth. Just download GOM Player: it's free, it's fast, and it handles subtitles files better than anything I've ever seen. Continue to watch your porn educational content on VLC; but use GOM for anything with subtitles. 
2. Change the encoding or format of the subtitle file yourself.
   This might sound like a hassle, but it's not. I highly recommend Batch Subtitles Converter. This app rocks because (1) it's self-executable, i.e. you don't have to install it; just double-click it (2) it's super lightweight and clean (3) it does multiple / batch conversions (4) it can convert both the file type and the encoding type.
   For example, I had an old set-top box with a USB port. I'd copy movies onto a USB stick, but that damn set-top box was so picky. The subtitle files had to be named identical to the video file, they had to be in EUC-KR encoding, and they had to be in SAMI (.smi) format. Loads of subtitle files I downloaded were UTF-8 and SubRip (.srt) format. This app took did it all no sweat, in a flash.

Good luck. And by the way, if you're looking for where to get subtitle files from, check out this post.

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