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2010-03-20T18:22:00.001+02:00

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Evolution - GMail - IMAP

2010-03-19T23:46:00.000+02:00

Lies and more lies.

Here's how I got evolution to work with Gmail using IMAP

Receive:

IMAP

imap.gmail.com:993

SSL

Send:

SMTP

smtp.gmail.com:465

server requires authentication

ssl encryption

authentication type PLAIN

ffmpeg and mp3

2010-01-25T07:22:00.000+02:00

I went to the trouble of compiling ffmpeg on windows - but there was an issue with compiling lame. It felt so unnatural on windows anyway. I'm so used to just having all the tools right there. With Ubuntu it's just so EASY. Most programs are just a quick apt-get away. If I need to compile something, it's just make install and you're away!

I'm supposed to be studying - but looks like this post : http://symbiotix.net/articles/compiling-ffmpeg-mp3-ubuntu-revised-ubuntu-gutsy-server is what I need. I'll give it a try when I have time - or maybe medibuntu has a ffmpeg with it build in?

Stolen from his site:

"However, we’re using Ubuntu based servers and Ubuntu has a strict policy not to include non-free software. This means that the ffmpeg version in the repositories is not built with essential functionality, like mp3 support for audio conversion.

Solution: compile from source. Don’t run away screaming. It’s real easy.

1. enable universe and multiverse repositories
UbuntuGuide » general notes » how to add extra repositories

2. get your tools

sudo apt-get install checkinstall build-essential subversion

3. get the latest ffmpeg sources

cd /usr/local/src sudo svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg

4. get the necessary dependencies

sudo apt-get install liblame-dev libfaad-dev libfaac-dev libxvidcore4-dev liba52-0.7.4 liba52-0.7.4-dev libx264-dev

5. configure

cd ffmpeg sudo ./configure --enable-gpl --enable-liba52 --disable-debug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaac --enable-pthreads --disable-vhook

6. compile

sudo make

7. go have a snack

8. create the .deb package

sudo checkinstall

note: just press [return] each time when asked for a configuration option

9. install the .deb package

sudo dpkg -i [ffmpeg_your_version.deb]

10. rejoice "

ffmpeg - MTS to MOV with DNxHD

2009-12-27T22:23:00.000+02:00

So I'm trying to get some insane high quality .MTS video, down to the same quality as my DSC's .MP4 stuff in DNxHD.

I can't for the life of me convince ffmpeg to get the FPS right. So for now my solution is NOT to take it to DNxHD, but to MJPEG

The video is easier than the sound - due to Vegas having that stupid sound bug. I spent more than an hour today trying to find an audio stream that Vegas likes. So far I have this:

ffmpeg -i source.MTS -vcodec mjpeg -s 1280x720 -qscale 1 -r 30 -acodec ac3 -ac 2 -ab 192k -ar 44100 target.AVI

Video works sweet - sound still messed up!

Sony Vegas - it's worth the trouble to get it to work

2009-12-25T07:16:00.000+02:00

After battling for hours - I have the solution.

Problem: Sony Vegas won't play audio for .MP4 - they blame QuickTime (LAME!!). All other non-pro video editors suck. Apart from the ones I blogged about - I tried a whole bunch of open source ones. They all suck.

Solution:

1. Pay for Sony Vegas (incentive to get it to work + I'm a Sony whore even though their laptops suck)

2. Download DNxHD codec from Avid woohoo for open standards!

3. Set up a nice Ubuntu install in VirtualBox (I'll have to dual boot until Civilization and Vegas run native under Linux.) Skip this step if you are hard core enough to compile ffmpeg to work under Windows.

4. Praise the mighty ffmpeg

ffmpeg -i INPUT.MP4 -vcodec dnxhd -b 60Mb -acodec pcm_s16be OUTPUT.MOV

5. Boom. You're ready!!!

Video Editing - With Adobe Premier Elements 8

2009-12-23T07:32:00.000+02:00

Awesome i7 chip, 7200rpm drive is decent enough - lets give this a spin

1) Massive download, install Adobe Premier Elements 8

2) Woohoo! It can edit .MP4 files!!!

3) Ok. It stopped working. W.T.F???

3.1) Damnit! Fine - I'm learning how to use ffmpeg

3.2) Install ubuntu in virtualbox - I'm not rebooting all the time

3.3) ffmpeg -i M4H00471.MP4 -vcodec mjpeg -sameq output.avi

4) Ok - sweet - I can open my files

4.1) I wonder if it works in Vegas now?

4.1.1) Nope

5) Ok - lets do some easy fade in / fade out effects

5.1) Damn this shit is slow.

5.2) DAMN!!! THIS IS SLOW!!!

5.3) W.T.F? It's not even touching my processor! My machine is just sitting back and relaxing!

5.3.1) Lots of free memory also... hmmm...

5.4) Ok ok - maybe I need to defrag?

5.5) Still slow as all hell.

Come on!!! How hard can this be! I just want to edit some some video mp4 video from my little digital camera. 720p 30 - that's not even a crazy high resolution. It should be a dream!

Video Editing - With Kdenlive

2009-12-07T05:04:00.000+02:00

New laptop with Ubuntu Karmic Koala. Time to edit those holiday videos.

1) Hello Kdenlive. Ok.. lets load in all the clips... BOOM CRASH.

2) Ok. Let's try only one. Hmm... sound playback kinda broken. Let's drag it on anyway. BOOM CRASH.

SOD THIS!

Video Editing - With Sony Vegas Platinum 9.0

2009-12-07T04:14:00.000+02:00

New laptop with Windows 7. Time to edit those holiday videos.

1) After messing around and trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.... No sound? Oh excuse me - mp4 from my Sony DVC doesn't provide a understandable audio track?

1.1) Ok - I'll convert it to something else

1.1.1) To VLC!

1.1.1.1) .OGG maybe? .OGG with VLC - bad quality, and sound is skippy. And Vegas can't play it.

1.1.1.2) .ASF then. Blegh. I think VLC is a bit ill.

1.1.2) Sod VLF - there must be something else! Ooow how about handbrake?

1.1.2.1) Nope - only for transcoding to nice little happy viewable formats.

1.1.3) MediaCoder?

1.1.3.1) Need 7zip to extract

1.1.3.2) Error code 8? That doesn't help me!

Forget this!!! I'm booting back into ubuntu!

xkill

2009-11-23T12:18:00.000+02:00

alt-f2 xkill

killing those nasty applications that i make...

I should be studying

2009-11-23T06:05:00.000+02:00

So of course - even under the pressure of imminent exams (11 hours left) I find distractions - like turning my old laptop into a media center.....

http://www.soma.fm/

http://www.bpm.fm/

Dell Studio 15 (1557)

2009-11-12T00:58:00.000+02:00

Got my new Dell Studio 15 (Studio 1557) yesterday!!

I love it. Hello i7. I love your fast speedy cpu Intel!!!!

Wasted no time in reinstalling Windows 7 on a small partition. (Thanks Dell for only increasing the memory footprint by 200meg with your random crapware - but I still prefer a clean install)

Ubuntu install was a bit painful. I haven't had a clean install since 8.10 - things started going wrong for me at 9.04. Don't let this happen Canonical! So q.c please!

The problems are all sound related - using the default volume keys caused craziness - and after installing a few things, sounds stopped working. Maybe that ATI drivers caused it? Anyway - solution to no sound on the dell is:
In file
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base:
Add another entry:
options snd-hda-intel model=dell-m6

WPF and the modal dialog (boring)

2009-10-19T23:23:00.000+02:00

Warning boring tech related blog entry follows:

Holy cows! WPF has made it VERY difficult to create a modal dialog box. It's difficult, because to do it properly, your modal dialog has to have a pointer to it's parent window. You can skip this step, have have one of those really junky applications that hide away your modal dialog in a land far far away.

The trick (hack) is the following

1) You need a System.IntPtr containing a pointer to the windows handle (this.Handle if you are lucky enough to be in a System.Windows.Window.Form)

2) You need to feed this pointer into your dialog thusly:

WindowInteropHelper wih = new WindowInteropHelper(myUserControl);
wuh.Owner = myIntPtr;
// then, with magical flair:
myUserControl.ShowDialog();

log4net

2009-10-13T23:59:00.000+02:00

I keep forgetting how to switch on log4net (using app.config)

I always end up wasting time on the apache docs, and searching the net to find this

Step 0:

Ensure that the first declaration of

"private static readonly log4net.ILog Log =log4net.LogManager.GetLogger(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);"
Occurs in your main assembly - if the first declaration is in linked assemblies, it won't load the setting correctly.

Step 1: Edit AssemblyInfo.cs
[assembly: log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator(Watch = true)]

Step 2: Edit App.config

Important! The configSections bit has to be at the top of your config file. So if you've got an existing one, don't just add it on to the end!

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<configSections>
<section name="log4net" type="log4net.Config.Log4NetConfigurationSectionHandler, log4net" />
</configSections>
<log4net>
<appender name="ConsoleAppender" type="log4net.Appender.ConsoleAppender" >
<layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
<conversionPattern value="%date [%thread] %-5level %logger [%ndc] - %message%newline" />
</layout>
</appender>
<root>
<level value="INFO" />
<appender-ref ref="ConsoleAppender" />
</root>
</log4net>
</configuration>

Step 3:

Need more example files - go to http://logging.apache.org/log4net/release/config-examples.html

"enfuse - poor man's HDR"

2009-08-27T05:31:00.000+02:00

Maybe I'm just too lazy for HDR.

I think align_image_stack and enfuse are my new best friends.

North Korea!!

2009-06-25T08:27:00.000+02:00

I totally forgot about North Korean!!! An updated world map is in order!

Spring time in Calgary

2009-04-04T03:10:00.003+02:00

It's spring time in Calgary! (Which is kind of like saying it's summer at the North Pole)

A game for a sad friend

2009-03-03T19:53:00.005+02:00

One of my friends is a bit sad. So... I made a game to cheer him up!!!

Click here to launch it! (You need Java)

It's a text based adventure game, that simulates real life.

XML, DOM, JAVA

2009-02-27T03:17:00.003+02:00

One of those things that I never bother remembering the exact details of, but end up having to look up on the internet all the time.

Note to self: XML, DOM, JAVA
Taken from this guys site: http://www.genedavis.com/library/xml/java_dom_xml_creation.jsp
Also a bit from here: http://www.java-tips.org/java-se-tips/javax.xml.parsers/how-to-read-xml-file-in-java.html

// get dom doc
DocumentBuilderFactory dbfac = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
DocumentBuilder docBuilder = dbfac.newDocumentBuilder();
Document doc = docBuilder.newDocument();
// Document doc = docBuilder.parse(new File(inputFilename));

// -- insert building dom here

// get dom transformer
TransformerFactory transfac = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
Transformer trans = transfac.newTransformer();
// make dom into something useful
FileWriter fw = new FileWriter(new File(outputFilename));
StreamResult result = new StreamResult(fw);
DOMSource source = new DOMSource(doc);
trans.transform(source, result);

World Map Update

2008-11-27T04:28:00.004+02:00

Explosions in Mumbai, have earned India a red dot.

World wide piracy also, can no longer be ignore.

I present, my most up to date "World Map of Places that are too dangerous or uncomfortable to live in"

Bored with blogging

2008-11-11T05:28:00.003+02:00

I'm bored with blogging. (For a while at least)

If you want to know what I've been up to - check out http://picasaweb.google.com/sybrand.strauss - I'm keeping that up to date.

Went biking in Kan an as kis

2008-10-22T05:37:00.004+02:00

Hmmm... why do I blog if Picasa Web is so much nicer?

More photos here - http://picasaweb.google.com/sybrand.strauss/KanAnAsKis#

Busy busy busy

2008-10-21T05:53:00.006+02:00

No blogging for a while now, because I've been VERY busy writing exams.

First thing, the most delayed - I have to document Daniels epic trip from Calgary to Montreal.

August 30, 2008 - Daniel leaves on an epic bike trip, from Calgary, to Montreal. Adina accompanies him on his 1st day.

September 3rd, 2008 - Daniel leaves on an epic bike trip, from Calgary, to Montreal. I accompany him an entire city block.

September 8, 2008 - Daniel leaves on an epic flight, from Calgary to Ottawa.

WindowsXP on HP dv2716ca

2008-09-06T06:42:00.006+02:00

XP can be installed and run on "Vista only" HP machines - at least on the dv2716ca - I have done so.

I don't like Vista. I gave it a fair chance, it was so bad - that I moved away from Microsoft completely, to Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a dream compared to Vista. I like XP - but lets face it, it's dying (or being killed). The future is Linux, Tiger and Vista. I'm not going to hold onto XP, the reality is, that if Microsoft doesn't move forward, and doesn't kill XP - they will lose to Mac and GNU.

I can spew lots of negative things about Microsoft and HP at this point, for colliding to killing XP by deliberately hiding their XP drivers, but whatever. I wanted XP on my laptop, because neither Vista, nor Ubuntu is any good for the collection of computer games I have amassed over the years. I like computer games, that's why I like XP. Maybe one day Wine will be good enough - but I don't think so.

What follows, is a brief description of what is needed to get an HP Pavilion dv2716ca to boot Vista, XP and Ubuntu. The same should go for most dv2700.

I should put in here - HP does NOT recommend you do this. You probably will lose all support, and for all I know your warranty to. For that matter - don't hold me responsible if your computer is completely useless after doing all of this. Put on you adventure hat!

Install Ubuntu.

Resize your Vista partition. I booted into knoppix and used gparted. Sizes are up to you. Make a NTFS partition for your XP install, and leave the rest of the space unallocated, for your Ubuntu install. I created a 5 gig XP partition, it's enough for XP and nothing else, because I'll be installing my software on my Vista drive, and on a removable hard drive.
Install Ubuntu.

Create a slipstreamed XP install CD.

Your old XP code won't work, because it doesn't have the right drivers. If you slipstream it on Vista, your CD key might stop working. So you need to slipstream a XP install CD on an XP machine.

I don't have another XP machine, so I installed VirtualBox OSE on Ubuntu, and installed a copy of XP there.

You can do it manually, or the easy way, use nLite

I found my SATA drivers on the HP site, but they are on the Intel site also. (Intel Matrix Storage Manager - sp38088.exe)

Install XP and get back Ubuntu and Vista
XP will now work, but Vista and Ubuntu have disappeared.
There are a few million different ways to do this. Ubuntu is easy, but you need to fix Vista first, that's just how it goes. There are lots of places on the net that say how - I'm not going to repeat - Google it!
Getting Ubuntu back is easy also, I'm not going to pretend I know what bootloader you are using - so you have to figure that out. I used grub. Basically boot up Ubuntu with your live cd and Google it.

Install drivers
This the tricky bit. I spent a few hours using lspci on linux to identify drivers, and try them on XP. ALL the drivers are there. Mostly on the Intel site, and on the HP site. The only trick was the card reader - that took lots of searching.
The only thing I haven't been able to get to work thus far - is the sound. Well - it works, but plugging in the headphones doesn't mute the built in speakers.

Why I brought my bicycle to Canada

2008-09-01T05:21:00.002+02:00

The first time I went to lake Mini Wanker, I kept thinking to myself - "it would be nice to bring my mountain bike here".

So I did.

Sony Walkman (NWZ-B105F) on Ubuntu

2008-08-21T02:22:00.005+02:00

Every now and then Ubuntu isn't quite as user friendly as I'd like it to be - and I have to learn something new about linux.
This time, my dandy new Sony Walkman (NWZ-B105F) doesn't get auto-deteced when I plug it in. (It's being discontinued, so it's going for cheap at the sony store in Calgary)

Thanks to http://ubuntu-virginia.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=866297 - it's not a problem - just use pmount to mount a device accessible by any user.

where is my walkman?
sudo fdisk -l
mount it!
pmount /dev/sdb1 /media/Walkman

Done! Ubuntu pops up with a link on my desktop to unmount it - but it doesn't work - so I have to do:
sudo umount /media/Walkman

ALTERNATIVELY!!!
Go to the Sony site, and download the new firmware. Then it just works. :)

What have I been up to?? Nothing much... Last thing of note was going to Saskatchamawoozle.