| Converting matroskas (MKV) to AVI with gstreamer |
[16 Apr 2008|07:05pm] |
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mood |
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 tired |
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I once needed to convert some MKVs into AVIs a couple years ago and took some time to figure out how to do it with gstreamer. I never posted the solution, and have found myself searching for my solution a few times.
( Read more... )
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| Using Ubuntu to recover data from a busted Windows drive |
[01 Apr 2008|05:09pm] |
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music |
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John Adams (episode 4) |
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My sister-in-law’s laptop was dropped while in use which damaged the hard drive. I offered to see what I could do to get the critical, data that had not been backed up.
( Read more... )
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| HP 4315 on Ubuntu (Hardy) |
[01 Apr 2008|04:49pm] |
We needed a new printer/scanner/fax/copier, so we shopped around a bit (just at Staples, really) on Friday. After getting together a list of reasonably priced models, I took the list home and searched for supply costs and Ubuntu compatibility. I settled on an HP 4315 (it was between that and a Brother MFC 240C and another pricier HP).
We got it home and pretty much everything works out of the box (assuming all the HP packages -- HPLIP, HPIJS -- are installed, which I believe is default for Ubuntu).
gscan2pdf is a pretty slick tool for turning a stack of papers directly into a PDF, so I think we’ll be using that frequently.
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| Trouble running maemo's scratchbox under Ubuntu Hardy? |
[09 Mar 2008|05:20am] |
I’ve been having trouble running scratchbox after upgrading to hardy. I’ve finally found some workarounds for the issues that creep up.
Update: (Thanks to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) colinleroy):
...to make these changes permanent across reboots, one can add these settings to /etc/sysctl.conf:
vm.vdso_enabled = 0
vm.mmap_min_addr = 4096
Then run
sudo sysctl -p
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| Openoffice impress opengl transitions... |
[06 Mar 2008|07:49pm] |
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mood |
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 blank |
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music |
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Not playing |
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I’ve been running the Alpha release of Ubuntu Hardy (the nascent LTS release due in April) and have been generally happy with the upgrade process and the updates to the software packages available.
( Read more... )
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| WPA protected home network |
[22 Feb 2008|05:21pm] |
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mood |
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tired |
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I updated my home firewall from dapper to hardy today. Ran into a bug or two in the process, but all is well.
With hardy, hostapd and the madwifi drivers work nicely with each other (hostapd would crash with madwifi in dapper), I can properly enable WPA on my home wireless.
All it took was setting the wpa and wpa_password fields in /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf and restarting hostapd. Looks like it’s working properly now.
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| Analysis of a failure to get a job offer |
[07 Feb 2008|04:57pm] |
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mood |
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blasé |
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music |
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American Public Media - 02/07/08 Marketplace Morning Report - Final Edition |
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So I had an (on site) interview with Google a couple weeks ago for this position. I got the word back today that I am not to be extended an offer. Coming out of the interview, however, I thought I had done a very good job of presenting myself and answering the technical and “social” questions.
Just because I can, I’m going to conjecture as to why it worked out this way (in no particular order).
( Read more... )
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| Booking |
[07 Feb 2008|01:23am] |
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Bought The Confusion. Haven’t read fiction in a while. It’s nice to read more about the Shaftoes and Waterhouses.
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| Thinking about new "home network architecture" |
[26 Jan 2008|04:58pm] |
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mood |
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awake |
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music |
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American Public Media - 01/25/08 Marketplace |
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So a recent woot.com sale sported a quad (!) core with 3G and two 320G drives, wireless network/keyboard/mouse/remote box with video in/out for $699 (refurbished). My home server’s been flaky lately, partly due to the atheros card in it, partly due to the services running on it and its limited (in today’s terms) RAM.
I almost bought it immediately, but thought about it for a while over lunch with my friend Peter. ( continue )
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| N810 review |
[21 Jan 2008|05:37pm] |
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mood |
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tired |
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music |
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Warren Olney - The Results Are In and the Races Are On |
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I figured I'd get this out once and for all, since I've been giving impromptu N810 reviews here and there.
( click-thru )
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| vnc for maemo clients |
[15 Jan 2008|02:47pm] |
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music |
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The Daily Show |
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Here’s a tip:
When running a vnc server for use with an 770/N800/N810, fire it up like so for optimal display:
vnc4server :1 -depth 16 -geometry 800x480 -name "vnc4maemo"
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| Odd call... |
[24 Dec 2007|07:53pm] |
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music |
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5F-X -- Maschinentest Spywarerecord (live 03) |
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Just got a call from “527 717 925079” (yes, those extra digits are correct). The guy on the other end spoke (perhaps) Russian and seemed to be asking for “Martha.” Strange...
I’ve never received an international call on this phone before, but it’s quite odd that the caller ID would display such an odd number. Shouldn’t it have posted a USian routing number?
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| Bought piximal.com |
[24 Dec 2007|07:20pm] |
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music |
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5F-X - Robo Oil Company X |
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Just bought a few domains after coming up with a name for my research project: piximal.com and piximal.org.
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| Zina Mini Cam on Ubuntu |
[17 Dec 2007|05:13pm] |
Just got a "Zina Mini Cam" from woot. It can take up to 25 pictures with its 300Kpxl CCD among other things. It attaches via USB, and is apparently not compatible with Vista (according to spec).
Turns out, it works just fine with Ubuntu. Plugged it in and it immediately asked if I want to download the pictures. Worked just fine. The camera (or gphoto) saves images ppm, but these can easily be converted to jpg.
Apparently, the driver (or the camera) doesn't allow deletion of the files from the camera, so just take out the AAA battery and the internal memory chip will flush itself (or use the CL mode option).
Also, the manual claims that the camera can be used as a video webcam when attached via USB, but there doesn't seem to be driver support for this aspect in Ubuntu.
( my face in the lab )
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| Eclipse .launcher python launcher (use an Eclipse launcher outside of Eclipse) |
[17 Dec 2007|01:58am] |
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music |
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Cake - Pentagram |
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I’ve needed something like this for a while now, but haven’t ever gotten around to implementing it. It’s just a simple little python script that takes, as a command line input, an Eclipse launcher, parses the classpath and argument info from the .classpath file and the launcher, and execs java to run the the class.
It’s certainly not complete (right now, it only picks up output folders and libs , the argument list splitting may be different than what Eclipse’s splitter, and it assumes it lives in a direct subdirectory of the project), but it’s a start.
( The script (run-launcher.py) )
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| Command line to convert ogg to mp3 with tags (using gstreamer) |
[15 Dec 2007|04:12pm] |
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music |
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Cake - Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps |
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I recreate this every so often, so I’m going to write this down once and for all:
for ogg in *.ogg; do
gst-launch-0.10 filesrc location="${ogg}" ! \
oggdemux ! vorbisdec ! audioconvert ! \
lame preset=extreme ! xingmux ! id3v2mux ! \
filesink location="${ogg/.ogg/.mp3}";
# vbrfix "${ogg/.ogg/.mp3}" "${ogg/.ogg/.new}"
# mv "${ogg/.ogg/.new}" "${ogg/.ogg/.mp3}"
# rm -f "${ogg}" vbrfix*
done
And, as a bonus, if logjam doesn’t know how to get music from rhythmbox (in Ubuntu 7.10/gutsy), it’s because it’s attempting to execute “rhythmbox --print-playing”, but it should be doing “rhythmbox-client --print-playing”, so set this in LogJam/Preferences/System/Detect Music From/Custom Command and LogJam will start detecting your music.
Edit BTW: there is a limitation of the id3v2mux in that the tags it writes won't necessarily be read by all players/tools. mpg321 seems to deal with them, but not id3v2 and id3tool done.
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| Barrack Obama suggests a federal CTO and technology plan |
[13 Dec 2007|12:38pm] |
Michael pointed out an Ars Technica article featuring Barrack Obama’s technology document.
Highlight include a federal CTO (“information czar”), bringing US broadband on par with other developed nations, and ensuring “schools, libraries, households, and hospitals” have access to broadband. The desired outcomes of these policies are meant to lower health care costs, improve “green” product research, improve education, create new jobs, and improve public safety.
Of course, I’d be most concerned about the public safety bit, since that could end up meaning more interlinked police recording devices on our streets, which is a topic I hope will get a bit more public debate WRT safety vs. security.
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| Tax policy idea: "Home Equity Savings Account" |
[29 Nov 2007|11:56am] |
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mood |
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tired |
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I was just thinking about 529s and Roth IRAs and I was wondering why there is not similar tool for saving up for home ownership. Right now, it seems all the incentives are to pay as little down as possible and take on as much debt as possible, since mortgage interest is untaxed.
I think the tax code should favor home ownership, but shouldn’t favor (as strongly) indebtedness. So how about a program where individuals can invest post-tax dollars in an account that grows tax-free (just like a 529, HCSA, or Roth IRA). Then, when the individual wants to buy a house, a withdrawal can be made without penalty. Taken a step further, after purchasing the house, money can be stored and used for home improvements or other related expenses.
Update Err... that's 529, not 509.
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chipper