Escape from boredom

Have spent some hours today trying to figure out how to edit video and create DVD’s when running Ubuntu. After some reading I ended up trying Kino. First challenge was to import the files from my camera, the Canon FS11. The actual import is not that hard, just plug the USB and navigate in the folder structure of the camera and import.

But, there is an issue with the files on the camera, they are saved using the MOD-file format. Found this post at srixmk.blogspot.com describing how to convert them to avi-format. I used the script but changed it a bit. I wanted to convert the files to .DV, which is the format KINO wants. Thanks to another post that was solved easily as well. So now I have a script which changes the default name of the files to the format yyyyMMddHHMM.dv while converting them to DV and afterwards just deletes the MOD-file. I named the script convertmodfiles.sh, thanks to srixmk for making the script which I just edited a bit.

Then I started testing KINO, using tutorials like “Making movies with KINO” and the “Adding titles and credits. But I could not get it to work, since I did not find “DV Titler” in the drop down menu of available vidoe filters. After very much cursing, I suddenly realized, even though I started to get really tired, that first of all: You don’t need to install DVTitler separately as a plugin, it is included when installing KINO, but…it is labled in the drop down menu as “Titler”. Gotta learn to use my eyes…doh…

So now to bed!

Had some trouble with my Lenovo T60 becoming way to hot in the past. Not sure, but I guess it might have something to do with me having installed Ubuntu (Linux) on it. Here the other day it did in fact switch itself off because it was to hot, and when it today started getting as hot as before. So, a quick search on the Internet I found the description of what to do. Created the file “/etc/modprobe.d/options” with the following line “options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1”. Then, after a reboot I was able to control the fan speed, setting it to automatic using “echo level auto > /proc/acpi/ibm/fan”.

Thinkwiki to the rescue, the article found there

A lot of cursing, but as always Google to the rescue, Shockwave Flash Plugin was the devil causing the problem. Just disable it and voila, back to normal. Solution found here www.computing.net/…/firefox-page-blanks-out-after-loading/..

@Update: Did just help for a while, so I enabled it and it all worked just fine. So now waiting until the next time when I have to disable it. And by the way, I do have the same problem on my laptop running Ubuntu as I have on the laptop I use at work running Windows XP.

Currently testing the Maven JMeter Plugin developed by Ron Alleva. Did some testing, but quite soon got an error like the one mentioned in the comments of his post

2010/01/19 16:42:45 ERROR – jmeter.JMeter: java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.apache.jmeter.gui.tree.JMeterTreeModel.
addSubTree(JMeterTreeModel.java:91)

A bit of struggle to actually find it, since I’m new both to Maven and diving into Open Source-code, but after I had a quick look into the code of both the actual plugin and JMeter itself it came clear that the problem was ClassNotFoundException related to Apache Commons LogFactory. With great help from Kaja I just added the following code to the POM-file


<dependency>
<groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
<artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
<version>1.1.1</version>
</dependency>


Updated my repository and voila, test running…

Quite simple to install VmWare-player, just follow the guide available here http://ubuntuguide.net/how-to-install-vmware-player-in-ubuntu-9-10. But note, if the installer hangs like it did for me, kill the installer (I did a reboot), then follow this steps http://my.opera.com/titzesan/blog/ubuntu-9-10-installing-vmware-player-2-5-3 Voila, installed and running flawlessly.

I thought I had created a blog post about this issue already, but was not able to find any information when I desperately needed to find the port number used to access the admin console of my local WAS installation. Anyhow, the trick is the file serverindex.xml

You will find the file in the directory located at
<AppServerRoot>\profiles\AppSrv01\config\cells\<cellname>\nodes\<nodename>\

So I found my console at http://localhost:9060/ibm/console/

See the InfoCenter for more information

I found this guide on how to mount your cell phone using bluetooth, in my case a Nokia 6280. I got an error when I tried to run the command “sudo modprobe fuse”, but it turned out that I could just skip it. Neath…!

Have been struggling quite hard (at least on my level it was hard (Jackass på lavt nivå )) to enable my installation of Linux to read from my Polar 725x heart rate monitor but now I have raised the white flag. Since I’m not a c-programmer or a hardcore Unix/Linux administrator I must admit that I find really hard to struggle with low level IR-issues combined with the need to run make to install the software that should read the exercises. And when that is done, I must install another application to view the data.

I think my next option will be to try out Windows XP running on a VmWare-image, or worst of it all…dual boot…annoying because it would just be because of the Polar SW not running on Linux.

…a bit angry since I actually got to install s710, and by using irdadump I know that my laptop and the watch are communicating. But running the Polar Protrainer on Linux using Wine enables all features except the use of IR…doh! I’ve seen some postings of people who has managed that as well, but that is far beyond my level of knowledge. Sometimes Open Source is not as open as people say it is…ok, I know how to read the code, but my God it is a long way before I can do anything with it…

Struggled to figure out how I could get the IR-port to function. It turned out that the port was functioning but I needed to send some data. Unlike Win XP which had a pop-up whenever a IR device was present, my Ubuntu installation have no such. Some struggeling, but I found this tutorial http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1753177&postcount=4 The command “ircp -r” saved me and I could transfer a picture from my cell phone to the laptop via IR.

Based on the guideline found at http://www.spotify.com/en/help/faq/wine/ I tried to do the same with my Cd collector program which they for some reason have decided not to make a Linux version of.

With Wine installed I downloaded the installation file from http://www.collectorz.com/music/download.php

Then I just ran “wine musiccollectorsetup_13327937.exe”, plain and simple. Wine creates some errormessages, but it was no showstoppers.

Started it by clicking on the icon on the desktop. The first time I tried to scan a cd I got a small problem, since the CD-drive did not show up. But that was solved easily with closing the application, then open “Configure Wine”. Go to the “drives”-tab, then choose Autodetect and remember to click “Apply”. The next time I tried it worked flawless.

And if your CD drive won’t open, check out this posting http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=30509 Just right-click the icon and “eject”.