RSS feed for InstantSpot site Aaron Lynch

Reencode videos for Blackberry 8100

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:35:00 GMT

After much searching/trying stuff I have found a way to successfully re-encode videos that can play on my Blackberry Pearl.

mencoder -vf expand=:::::4/3,scale=240:180 "[entervideohere]" -o "[enteroutputhere]" -of avi -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=230:acodec=mp3:abitrate=64

Obviously you need to have mencoder installed

I am not completely sure what other dependencies there are, since I tried installing so many different tools....but I THINK you need the following: lame, ffmpeg .

Updates to cf_scriptalizer and InstantSpot.com

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:51:13 GMT

For those of you interested, I have made another slight update to my custom tag cf_scriptalizer. After implementing the custom tag on all of the InstantSpot.com user sites I noticed that I mistakenly left in code to rewrite the config file every time a new file combination was passed.

Now, it works as designed. Every unique combination of Javascript files is managed on its own, that way we don't have to have one generic combined/minified file.

The latest version of the tag can be downloaded here.

Updates to Scriptalizer.com

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:14:21 GMT

This morning I made a change to Scriptalizer.com to accept more known MIME types. So if anybody was trying it and getting the 0KB result, please try it again.

For those interested, a JavaScript file's MIME will look different based off of where it originates (browser sending it).

Here are the ones I know about:

text/ecmascript
application/ecmascript
text/jscript
application/x-js
application/javascript
application/x-javascript
text/javascript
application/octet-stream

Combine and compress your javascript files: Scriptalizer.com

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:37:00 GMT

After creating a custom tag and minifier component (using YUICompressor) I decided it would be a pretty neat service to offer to everybody. Last night I scrounged up a website and called it Scriptalizer.com.

If you want to test what cf_scriptalizer does to your javascript before you actually use the tag, you can try out the generated script provided by Scriptalizer.com.

NOTE: All source files uploaded is immediately deleted once generated.

Problem: WAY too many javascript files. Solution: cf_scriptalizer

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:44:00 GMT

Information about a custom tag to combine and compress javascript files.

Reading is fundamental: AJ's Summer Reading List

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:46:00 GMT

Recently, while I was reading and enjoying Atlas Shrugged (by Ayn Rand), I came across a list of books somebody suggested everybody read. Unfortunately I have forgotten where I saw it... But, I took his list, massaged it a little, and came up with my own.

Here is a list of the next 10 books coming up from my list:

Title	Author
The Great Gatsby	F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Prince	Niccolo Machiavelli
Slaughter-house Five	Kurt Vonnegut
1984	George Orwell
The Republic of Plato: Second Edition	Plato
The Brotherrs Karamazov	Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Catcher in the Rye	J.D. Salinger
The Wealth Of Nations	Adam Smith
For Whom the Bell Tolls	Ernest Hemingway
The Picture of Dorian Gray	Oscar Wilde

InstantSpot.com is open for business!

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:56:00 GMT

You might have noticed, ever since our Version 2.0 release, InstantSpot account creation has only been available for those with a valid invitation code.

Well, that is a thing of the past.

Thanks to all of our testers/users for helping us sort through any bugs encountered along the way. As always, if any issues are encountered please feel free to contact me directly or use the link in the control panel to report problems.

So what are you still doing here??! Go create your 'Spot now!

Windows and Linux...at the same time!

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:30:00 GMT

Be prepared ... cool geek stuff ahead.

I think I came across this blog entry on digg, but I can't remember for certain. But wherever the original source, it is awesome.

Long story short, you can run a virtual Windows machine (with vmware server) and connect to it via seamless rdp allowing you to interact with your windows applications right on your linux desktop.

Here is a screenshot example. You can see my Gnome panel at the top of the screen, and the Windows taskbar at the bottom.

While this is cool in a gadgety sort of way, it is also going to be so much nicer for IE browser testing and who knows what else.

Here is a blog post detailing exactly how to get your own symbiosis up and running.

NOTE: in the example below the "\" in his examples were removed for some reason... your launcher should look like this

rdesktop -A -s 'c:\seamlessrdp\seamlessrdpshell.exe c:\windows\explorer.exe' WindowsIpAddressHere -u YOURUSERNAME -p YOURPASSWORD

Windows-Linux-Symbiosis-Not-a-Dream-Anymore

Installing Vmware Server 1.03 on PCLinuxOS 2007

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:10:00 GMT

Recently I got the bug to try out a different Linux distribution on my laptop. I have been a die-hard Ubuntu user since I made the switch full time (haven't looked back since!), so after trying and failing to install Gentoo (guess I'm not L33T enough for that distro yet) I landed on PCLinuxOS 2007.

Once I got my development environment configured just like I like it, it was time to install a Windows VM so I can run some applications that I need at my day job (IE6,IE7, Flexbuilder, etc). For this purpose, I elected to use Vmware Server 1.03 (we already had that tarball downloaded).

When installing, I encountered an installation error that turned out to be somewhat commonplace.

Building the vmmon module. Using 2.6.x kernel build system. 
make: 
Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only' make -C /lib/modules/2.6.22.15.tex2/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. modules 
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.22.15.tex2' CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o In file included from /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:80: /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: 
error: expected declaration specifiers or ... before compat_exit 
/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: 
error: expected declaration specifiers or ... before exit_code 
/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: 
warning: type defaults to int in declaration of _syscall1 
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o] Error 1 
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only] Error 2 
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.22.15.tex2' 
make: *** [vmmon.ko] 
Error 2 make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only' Unable to build the vmmon module.

To get past this error, a quick Google search turned up a patch called the "vmware-any-any-update" that needed to be run. (get that here).

Ok, so that fixed the first error but then I ran into this...

Building the vmmon module. 
Building for VMware Server 1.0.0. Using 2.6.x kernel build system. make: Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only' make -C /lib/modules/2.6.22.15.tex2/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. modules 
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.22.15.tex2' CC [M]
 /tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/linux/driverLog.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/comport.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/cpuid.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/hash.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/memtrack.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/phystrack.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/task.o gcc: error trying to exec 'cc1plus': execvp: No such file or directory 
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/task.o] Error 1 make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only] Error 2 
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.22.15.tex2' make: *** [vmmon.ko] Error 2 
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only' 

Unable to build the vmmon module.

Another quick trip through the Google search told me that I just didn't have g++ installed. The easy way to find this package is to just open Synaptic and do a search for "g++".

Starting VMware services: Virtual machine monitor [ OK ]
Virtual ethernet [ OK ] 
Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0 [ OK ] 
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1 (background) [ OK ] 
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 (background) [ OK ] 
NAT service on /dev/vmnet8 [ OK ] 

The configuration of VMware Server 1.0.3 build-44356 for Linux for this running kernel completed successfully.

Create a custom pod with Sproutbuilder

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:44:00 GMT

Sproutbuilder is a new application that recently rolled out in a beta status. Basically it allows you to create widgets in a pretty nice Flex interface.

From their howitworks page:

Building a sprout is easy. Choose from dozens of pre-built templates or start from scratch. Drag-and-drop shapes, text, images, video, and more. Then add components such as slideshows, jukeboxes, and countdown clocks, as well as interactive services such as chat (Meebo), phone (Ribbit), fundraising (ChipIn), and more. Once you’ve got your content in place, use advanced editing and navigation tools to perfect your sprout.

Ultimately you end up with an embed code, like this

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" width="180" height="171" id="sUAAKe0cDAJqAatXf"><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="align" value="middle" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" /><param /><param name="movie" value="http://farm.sproutbuilder.com/17661/load/UAAKe0cDAJqAatXf.swf" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://farm.sproutbuilder.com/17661/load/UAAKe0cDAJqAatXf.swf" width="180" height="171" wmode="transparent" align="middle" bgcolor="#ffffff" /></object>
<img style="visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;" border=0 width=0 height=0 src="http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/CIMP/Jmx*PTEyMDE3OTA5NTUxMDcmcHQ9MTIwMTc5MDk1NTY5MSZwPTEyMDc*MSZkPTE4MjgyJm49.jpg" />

Now, to add it to your InstantSpot site...gotta tie that in right :)

Log in to the control panel and click on the Widgets section.

Then, once you are there, you can click to add a pod, reorder, deactivate, etc...

Then, on to the end result...go look at your Spot.

My uncle's first shirt.woot.com sale

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:22:00 GMT

How cool?! My uncle, Jim, has been creating pieces of art in various forms for as long as I can remember. Lately he has been creating t-shirt designs. Tonight at midnight, his first approved shirt.woot.com design goes on sale.

He has titled this piece Feed The Whale.

Jim describes it as "a kind of Haida and Tlingit
Indian influenced thing"

From what I hear, the shirt will be a creme american apparel shirt.

Very cool, and way to go Jim!

Check out more of Jim's art at his flickr page here.

Making progress with GIMP

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:07:00 GMT

I ran across a tutorial on how to create "Vista" like buttons with GIMP. If you have ever tried to use GIMP to do anything, you know how much different it is than most other graphics editors out there. For the longest time I just thought it was just terrible...but that was before I found some examples on how to use it.

I'm happy to report that by following along with this tutorial (read it here) that I was able to duplicate these buttons. Ok, so GIMP might not be so bad...what else does it do?

I then dug some more and found another cool tutorial on created "old" photos.

Once again...success! I got reallly close on this one, with a pic of my son. In this tutorial (read it here), I realized that there is a whole world of add-ons for GIMP. Some brushes from here were used to create the distressed looking scratches on the image.

For more GIMP Tutorials, you can check out gimp-turorials.net

Hardy Heron: First Impressions

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:42:00 GMT

Recently, Hardy Heron Alpha 3 was released so, being curious and an avid distro-installer I decided to download the iso and create a virtual machine to see what was new.

I am currently running Ubuntu Feisty (one version older than Gutsy) since I encountered some behavior with Compiz-fusion that I just couldn't stand. (I'm really picky about my OS!).

Get the Alpha 3 - 386 ISO HERE

Installing Hardy Heron Alpha 3

First I created my virtual machine using Vmware Server. And set the CDROM device to boot from the hardy heron installation iso file.

Once past the boot menu, I encountered this message: "Unable to register AppArmor" Not sure what the deal was but after hanging at this message for a couple seconds it went on through to boot into the live cd session.

[AppArmor is an alternative to SELinux, (which is pretty difficult to configure btw)]

Live CD: As you can see, this is pretty generic Gnome live cd.

From within the Live CD session, I choose to install Hardy Heron to my virtual hard drive. One thing of note here, the max screen resolution was 800x600 and the GUI for installation was slightly larger than that. So I had to guess my way to the "Next" buttons by tabbing and hoping :).

Eventually we got to a real session:

As with any of the previous pre-release Ubuntu's, you get to enjoy PLENTY of updates to your software. In this case we were greated with 199 updates available.

After clicking on the update notifier and selecting to install the updates, we ran into another little quirky issue...this is Alpha right?! ;) I was able to begin pulling the updates by going into terminal and typing:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

After a reboot, once the updates were all downloaded and installed, I found out why the update manager didn't want to install these updates.

My Impressions

So, what do I think? I think it's just to early to really tell anything about the new features that Hardy Heron plans to offer.

I was really hoping to see the new enhancements to the desktop effects but I could not enable them for some reason. I did not see any Restricted Drivers Manager that would allow me to install the appropriate video card drivers.

So, if you are new to Linux and want to try out Ubuntu, be sure to try out a stable version (Gutsy is the current release version, go download it HERE). I on the other hand, am going to keep this little VM around and see what the next round of updates brings.

Upcoming Features

Among road-mapped features that I'm looking forward to in Hardy Heron:

hardy-desktop-effects
- To ensure the smooth operation of compiz as the default window-manager the integration work into the desktop has to be emphasized. The tools for controlling appearance, workspaces, keyboard and sessions have to be made more compiz-aware. The default behaviour (actions triggered via keyboard-shortcuts or by popping up dialogs) of compiz is not to be different from metacity. It has to be taken care of that shortcuts of applications are not overridden by compiz. Interaction with the underlying framework (RandR) provided by Xorg has to be ensured so hotplugging of displays, screen-rotations and resolution-changes work without causing compiz to quit or crash.
Kubuntu Hardy KDE 4
- Handle the 4.0 release, merge with Debian and get it in sync with Ubuntu features.
- I am really looking forward to this. I enjoy switching back and forth between Gnome/KDE/Fluxbox/e17. So a nicely integrated KDE 4 will rock!
Fix the Linux audio mess once and for all
- Currently audio on Linux is a mess. Sound servers like Esound, Arts, Jack, PulseAudio constantly fight for exclusive access to the sound device. Applications usually support only a small subset of the available sound server/device APIs, and need to be configured for their use. Sound APIs are generally incompatible. Audio applications usually come with a messy plugin systems to support every API available. Several abstraction APIs exist, however, none is good for all use cases. Professional audio usually requires shutting down all non-professional sound porgrams. On the other hand Apple managed to define a common sound system (CoreAudio) which makes nearly everyone happy - desktop users as much as professional audio people.

"Friend Only" Blogging...A New InstantSpot Feature

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:08:00 GMT

Example of one of the levels of permission that can be applied to blog entries on InstantSpot.

Star Spangled Banner Sung Backwards!

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:36:58 GMT

Wow, this took some serious memorization and trial/error I bet.

[youtube LbkNxYaULBw]

Last Day for Open Sign-Ups

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:41:54 GMT

Today is the day!

What day you ask? The day we are making the DNS change to direct you, the InstantSpot.com visitor, to our new and much-improved version of InstantSpot.

What does this mean? It means that today is the last day we are accepting open sign ups and going to Invite Only registrations.

As Dave has mentioned "Our DNS TTL is an hour, so for many people the change will show up almost immediately." and we'll be making the switch late tonight so be sure to check back tomorrow for the new site.

For our current members, we have taken every efffort to make the switch as backward compatible as possible. Your current site should look largely the same, only better! :)

JOIN NOW If you'd like to create your own free InstantSpot blog.

Today I found a reason to actually have a webcam

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:04:42 GMT

Sandy, a co-worker of mine (you'll see her pic later) just got a Mac Book and today she brought it to work to let me play with it. As luck would have it I opened an application called Photo Booth. Well, if you haven't had time to play around with that app, you should because it is hilarious.

Here are the the pics we ended up with...ok, back to work!

Dave

Conrad

Sandy

Catfish Noodling...wow

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:46:04 GMT

Ok, so I had heard of this sport called noodling from my wife's uncle (he's from Oklahoma). I guess I believed that somebody might have done this once or twice, but as it turns out its pretty common, in some places :).

Basically, it boils down to a person finding a catfish hole and sticking their hand down in it until a catfish bites onto it... ?!!?

[youtube tb5kEEcJqKM]

From Wikipedia:

Although the concept, catching fish with only the use of the arm in the water, is simple enough, the process of noodling is more complicated. The choice of catfish as the prey is not arbitrary, but comes from the circumstances of their habitat. Flathead catfish live in holes or under brush in rivers and lakes and thus are easy to capture due to the static nature of their dwelling. To begin, a noodler goes underwater to depths ranging from only a few feet to up to twenty feet, placing his hand inside a discovered catfish hole. If all goes as planned, the catfish will swim forward and latch onto the fisherman's hand, usually as a defensive maneuver in order to try to escape the hole. If the fish is particularly large, the noodler can hook the head around its gills.

And of course, this wonderful scene wouldn't be complete without "Girls Gone Grabblin". Notice there is plenty of banjo music to go around in this video.

[youtube a82Iuh4jXZg]

think GOS: Sub-$200 Ubuntu based PC at Walmart

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:46:40 GMT

Just saw this on digg but had to re-post it. Walmart is carrying an Ubuntu based computer, running the gOS operating system. "An alternative OS with Google Apps and other Web 2.0 apps for the masses"

Very cool!

Go get one here

From Walmart.com:

This exceptional value is built around a Via Technologies processor designed for low power consumption. It runs on the gOS operating system and features the OpenOffice.org 2.2 software suite that gives users the ability to create word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. Additional highlights include a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive, Ethernet port and stereo speakers.


Key Features & Benefits:

	1.5 GHz Via Technologies C7-D processor
		Delivers energy-saving performance

	512 MB of DDR2 system memory
		Offers good performance and is expandable to 2 GB

	80 GB hard disk drive
		Provides space for documents, games, photos and music

	DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive
		Lets you play DVDs and burn your own CDs for entertainment and data backup

	10/100 Mbps Ethernet
		Connects to a local area network or broadband Internet devices

	gOS operating system
		Enables you to use the supplied OpenOffice.org 2.2 software suite

XKCD Strikes Again! (hilarious)

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:32:53 GMT