Jan 6: To avoid Adobe's Download Manager (DLM), try FTP!
Fed up with having to download a download manager in order to fetch a little piece of proprietary software, I'm recommending people use the FTP site which Adobe runs. Head over to:
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/
You'll find the version you need quite quickly, and a choice of MSI or EXE installer.
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/
You'll find the version you need quite quickly, and a choice of MSI or EXE installer.
Sep 22: The Great Freecycle Breakaway: Freegle
In my inbox this morning. Please, somebody tell me this is not for real. It reads like a halting plot summary for a Lord of the Rings-style B-movie. I have huge respect for the Freecycle/Freegle movement and give away through it quite often but had no idea of the battle of wills which had brought the nattier named "Freegle" into the world. To think of these volunteers engaging the "TFN spies" on home turf brought a tear of patriotism to my eye. How right that this bloody, ideotechnological war should be hidden from the doe-eyed donors of unwanted personal property for so long. "We British did what we knew was best." We certainly did. Who'll buy the movie rights? I, for one, welcome our Freecycle overlords.
Hi Everyone,
Today marks our one year anniversary as Freegle after leaving The Freecycle Network (TFN).
What was kept from the membership was the intolerable situation which had been brewing for month's even years. The group owners here in the UK wanted some form of limited autonomy for our groups. We have UK laws and local customs but we were being dictated to and threatened by a few in power in the US. In a final phase we formed an association of UK Freecyle moderators – some 400 groups - who were not `gagged' for being outspoken. We formally elected seven people to represent us UK moderators and negotiate with the draconian dictators. Unfortunately these representations fell on deaf ears and The Freecycle Network did what it knew best – get rid of those who stood up against them. The seven representatives were ordered to stand down and hand over their groups to Interim moderator control by the USA. At the same time the long term UK director of TFN, who offered resignation on moral concerns over widespread TFN practices, was also dismissed and told to hand over his group. Several others were also included in the summarily dismissal.
We British did what we knew was best. We mobilised and worked around the clock and came up with a new group named - Freegle - a wholly UK, grass roots and totally voluntary run organisation. On September 11th (ironically) we broke away. I for one worked late into the night moving over another group I was a backup owner to. Around 80 groups moved that night and many more over the following days.
This group's owners, moderators and some of the more active members unanimously agreed we should follow suite. Any group which tried to discus openly with their membership sealed their own fate as TFN spies reported back to the US and the group owners removed.
So from myself, my co-owners and moderators of this group – Happy first birthday and thank you for sticking by us.
Best wishes,
Paul – on behalf of the moderating team.
ilovefreegle.org
Sep 16: Printing from Linux to Windows 7
Update: Seems this is a well-known problem:
Props to Ralf Schaeftlein for his blog article Printing via SMB from Ubuntu 10.04 to Windows 7 - no one else I had found mentioned:
The problem I was having? Being unable to browse the network shares on a computer. Here's what I was getting:
Here's what I wanted:
Thanks, Ralf! What I want to know is how he worked that out!
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/samba/+bug/458637
- http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Live+Sign-In+Assistant+samba
Props to Ralf Schaeftlein for his blog article Printing via SMB from Ubuntu 10.04 to Windows 7 - no one else I had found mentioned:
Next step is to uninstall the “Windows Live Sign-In Assistant” under windows 7 which is the main cause why the windows shares like the printers are not available from ubuntu.
The problem I was having? Being unable to browse the network shares on a computer. Here's what I was getting:
james@ruby:~$ smbclient -L //Rena-HP
Enter james's password:
Anonymous login successful
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Windows 7 Home Premium 7600] Server=[Windows 7 Home Premium 6.1]
Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
Error returning browse list: NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED
Anonymous login successful
Domain=[WORKGROUP] OS=[Windows 7 Home Premium 7600] Server=[Windows 7 Home Premium 6.1]
Server Comment
--------- -------
Workgroup Master
--------- -------
Here's what I wanted:
james@ruby:~$ smbclient -L Rena-HP
Enter james's password:
Domain=[RENA-HP] OS=[Windows 7 Home Premium 7600] Server=[Windows 7 Home Premium 6.1]
Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
ADMIN$ Disk Remote Admin
C$ Disk Default share
D$ Disk Default share
HP Photosmart C4100 series Printer HP Photosmart C4100 series
IPC$ IPC Remote IPC
print$ Disk Printer Drivers
Users Disk
Domain=[RENA-HP] OS=[Windows 7 Home Premium 7600] Server=[Windows 7 Home Premium 6.1]
Server Comment
--------- -------
Workgroup Master
--------- -------
Thanks, Ralf! What I want to know is how he worked that out!
May 19: Caller ID reception by GSM modem
For the tech-heads amongst us,
if you should ever want to pick up caller id with a GSM modem, you should know that the usual AT commands to initialize the feature on the receiving modem don't work. So, for Google's benefit, these are useless:
if you should ever want to pick up caller id with a GSM modem, you should know that the usual AT commands to initialize the feature on the receiving modem don't work. So, for Google's benefit, these are useless:
- AT+VCID=1
- AT#CID=1
The correct string to use is:
AT+CLIP=1Thanks to smotbd in this Experts Exchange article about a completely different problem (scroll to toward the bottom).
May 9: The new(ish) Broadcom STA drivers
As much for my reference as anything, I'd like to make a note about the new Linux Broadcom drivers for wireless chipsets. It all went wrong for me when I upgraded kernels. Thankfully, I can still hook up via my phone.
Firstly, the README is very useful...
Secondly, this is the important bit:
Read More
Firstly, the README is very useful...
Secondly, this is the important bit:
Read More
Mar 31: Turning Ubuntu Desktop into Ubuntu Server
For personal reference as much as anything else, this seems to be quite a good way to get rid of a lot of GUI baggage when you've installed Ubuntu from the Desktop CD and have now decided to use it as a server:
$ sudo apt-get remove gdm gnome-*
...
... Read More
Feb 25: Why is DVD authoring with open source software so d4mn difficult?
Converting the videos is easy enough. ffmpeg is the tool to use:
You can use any format for input that your ffmpeg is compiled to support, so this works just as well for Youtube and Google Videos that you cannot find the mpgs for:
The problem with making your DVD is the actual authoring process. I've been using ManDVD with some success, although it seems to be slightly incompatible with modern ffmpegs (make sure to add a menu sound file, as ManDVD fails to instruct ffmpeg correctly to make a silent one to multiplex in), and can be frustrating to use: no working project save, for example. It will author and burn disks, but sometimes, if you're using ManDVD or another tool, the process will fail after the creation of the authored content in AUDIO_TS AND VIDEO_TS directories. If that happens, you can do this:
That will burn you a new, properly authored DVD if you run it from the directory where your VIDEO_TS directory resides.
As far as the authoring goes, what we need is a simple frontend to dvdauthor which will create an XML document and design the titles, menus and masks nicely. I know that I could make all the menu files in the GIMP, but I just don't have the time. I want a simple, templates-based approach. I'm happy to do all the file conversion, up front, and I'm happy to use cdrecord or growisofs to handle the burn. I need help with the DVD authoring, that's all.
Let's stop this from being a compatibility crap-shoot, and get a process that produces consistent, standards-compliant DVD content into order, without loads of scripting.
Ok, maybe I was ill-informed. I'm trying VideoTrans at the moment. It seems to be making a consistent and quite sophisticated menu system for the four videos I want to turn into a DVD. I'll see what the results are like.
$ ffmpeg -i yourfile.avi -target pal-dvd -aspect 4:3 output.mpgYou can use any format for input that your ffmpeg is compiled to support, so this works just as well for Youtube and Google Videos that you cannot find the mpgs for:
$ ffmpeg -i youryoutubevid.flv -target pal-dvd -aspect 4:3 output.mpgThe problem with making your DVD is the actual authoring process. I've been using ManDVD with some success, although it seems to be slightly incompatible with modern ffmpegs (make sure to add a menu sound file, as ManDVD fails to instruct ffmpeg correctly to make a silent one to multiplex in), and can be frustrating to use: no working project save, for example. It will author and burn disks, but sometimes, if you're using ManDVD or another tool, the process will fail after the creation of the authored content in AUDIO_TS AND VIDEO_TS directories. If that happens, you can do this:
$ growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd -dvd-video .That will burn you a new, properly authored DVD if you run it from the directory where your VIDEO_TS directory resides.
As far as the authoring goes, what we need is a simple frontend to dvdauthor which will create an XML document and design the titles, menus and masks nicely. I know that I could make all the menu files in the GIMP, but I just don't have the time. I want a simple, templates-based approach. I'm happy to do all the file conversion, up front, and I'm happy to use cdrecord or growisofs to handle the burn. I need help with the DVD authoring, that's all.
Let's stop this from being a compatibility crap-shoot, and get a process that produces consistent, standards-compliant DVD content into order, without loads of scripting.
Edit
Ok, maybe I was ill-informed. I'm trying VideoTrans at the moment. It seems to be making a consistent and quite sophisticated menu system for the four videos I want to turn into a DVD. I'll see what the results are like.