Stuphi

As I may have said before, I like to use LaTeX for writing reports for work. Often, these reports include some images. Simple. Take a photo, edit and crop the jpeg, and then convert to Encapsulated Postscript to add to the report.
Now if someone was to ask me how to convert from one format to another, then I would suggest to them ImageMagick and its convert utility. Sure enough, this is what I have been using for some time. The only problem is that the EPS files it creates are huge.
Playing around with the options, and I have managed to get by for some time. Now I have a new answer. sam2p.
This is a great little program that does just what I need. Fantastic!

I connected my Epson Stylus Photo R285 printer to my main computer after reorganizing my network. This time I wanted to share the printer with my laptop, that duel boots Windows and Ubuntu. Like a fool, I dove into the guts of the CUPS configuration files. Tried to work out what I needed to edit on the host machine to get it to share the printer, and on the client machine to get it to connect. Eventually, I found a couple of check boxes I needed to put a tick in, and viola! It worked!

If only editing policykit or consolekit or whatever it is called. For some time, I have put up with having to enter my password on shutdown as some policy will not allow the machine to close while other users are logged in. It would appear that Mythtv runs as a logged in user. I understand why this would be a default setting on a server. However, on my computer it makes no sense. I want my wife or kids to be able to turn the computer on, do some stuff, and shut down without needing admin privileges. I guess the problem is with Mythtv, but it would be nice to have some policy editor where I can simply turn on and off what I want.

Fortunatly, someone ponted me towards required edit.

I was browsing through the manual for my new TV, when I saw a reference to the GPL.

This product uses some software programs which are distributed under the GPL/LGPL license. Accordingly, the following
GPL and LGPL software source codes that have been used in this product can be provided after asking to vdswmanager@samsung.com.
GPL software: Linux Kernel, Busybox, Binutils
LGPL software: Glibc, ffmpeg, smpeg, libgphoto, libusb, SDL

Now, how do I get root?

The other day, Google released its open source operating system. This has been expected for some time, and I was keen to have a look.

Well following some instructions, I managed to fail to compile my own image of the new operating system. Having quickly bored of trying, my next option was to download a pre-compiled version. This was easy to find, and ended up with having a VirtualBox appliance on my hard drive.

Now this is very early software, so it would be unfair to be critical. However, it does look promising. For someone who only used a computer to email and surf the web, it would be great.

It has been suggested that it will another year before this becomes a full release. In the mean time, I intend to keep an eye on it.

So I have started playing with Mapnik and Openstreetmap data. A number of times in the past when I have attemped this, it has fallen over. Finally I have got it up and running. Now all I need is to find a suitable application for this.

In the meantime, I can play around creating animations such as this.

Youtube Link

It is that time of year again.

Wow. This is so cool, I just have to tell someone. In the past, in order to remember how to compile transcode video for different things, i have maintained some notes for me to refer to. One of the jobs I did a number of times was create DVD’s to play on a standard DVD player. Well it was always a bit of a pain to do. So much so, that for a long time I have just avoided doing it.

Now recently I have been asked to convert some NTSC DVD’s that we own to PAL format so that our old TV can display them correctly. Following a bit of discussion on the Hampshire Linux User Group mailing list, I decided to have a play again.

To cut a long story short, I ended up using dvd::rip to extract the data from the DVD that was required. This program makes it easy to see what is needed from the DVD. Only the required content can be selected. By choosing the option to rip to disk before encoding, then the tool can be used simply as a ripper.

Once the data is on the hard drive, I can then use DeVeDe to turn that into a PAL DVD image file. Once that is complete, all that needs to be done is to burn it to a disk.

To get the best results, I have to remember to select a de-interlacing filter otherwise any fast moving objects look horrible.

The best part is the easy interface. All the options required are easy to find, and a simple but effective menu structure can be build with just a few clicks. Normally, I would rather use command line applications, and if this was a process that was to be repeated lots, then it would probably be better to use the underlying programs directly. However, for me, this program provides a great interface and makes the process almost pain free. I will have to have purchase a new pack of blank disks now!

Its that time of year again!

I am sure there are lots of great resources for getting to grips with Ubuntu and Linux in general. However, I remember my first tentative steps were helped along by being able to read a manual. So having a reference work freely available for Ubuntu is great.

To be honest, I cant claim to have read this book, but I like the idea of giving the PDF away for free. Certainly more than a few people who read the PDF will be motivated to buy the printed copy. Check it out for yourselves at http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/