I was having the hardest time getting various programs to echo the runtime of m2ts files in Linux, and it turns out someone wrote a parser for the files in the BDMV/PLAYLIST directory, which have all of this information. Get bdtools. I got Version 1.4. You can find it here. ./configure && make && sudo [...]

Calibre is about the best thing since sliced bread. It is able to convert basically any type of Ebook format into EPUB, which is what my Nook reads natively. It seamlessly syncs with the Nook as well, which is a huge plus, and all of this happens in Linux. I highly recommend this software. Just [...]

So, ConvertLit seems to be a good solution for those looking to convert LIT ebooks into EPUB (well, into HTML, but then into EPUB…).  Unfortunately, the developers seem to be unable to properly make a good source tarball for version 1.8.  Here’s what I did: Download Version 1.8 source from here. unzip clit18src.zip -d convertlit [...]

So, recently, I installed Ubuntu karmic cleanly on my main desktop machine here at home, and I have really liked it. I even switched to KDE, and everything has been working better than it had been in GNOME. I tried setting up Skype the other day, and ran into an issue with the microphone. It [...]

I used to use lirc with mplayer to allow my Packard Bell crappy remote to work awesomely, but I have since lost that configuration and switched to smplayer, since it’s awesome.  Today, I figured out how to control smplayer using similar means.

I was having a bunch of trouble today importing my old MySQL amarok database into the new nightly version of amarok I installed.  The Amarok Wiki had a great section on how to convert a MySQL Amarok collection into an SQLlite one.  This was the key to importing my old 1.4 collection into the new [...]

Today, I finally set up my new OCZ SSD hard drive: All I had to do to convert my M1530 running Ubuntu over was use the cp command: mkdir /mnt/root && mount root_partition /mnt/root mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/target cp -a /mnt/root/ /mnt/target/ You might also have to repeat for other partitions like boot and home. cp [...]

In today’s troubled world, it’s nice to be able to talk about different currencies. The Euro is one that has gotten very popular lately, and you can actually type the character in Linux. In Ubuntu, you can select a Third-level chooser key to enable foreign characters to be typed. I chose the right ALT key [...]

Oh man, what a day. I attended quite a few talks, grabbed a lot of swag, and entered a few contests. I ended up buying the Arduino Starter Kit from MAKE so I can do some awesome embedded Ruby like I saw at FOSCON. It looks really fun – I can’t wait to try it [...]

So, I upgraded my Ubuntu installation from Gutsy to Hardy today on my precious laptop. It went pretty well except for the nvidia driver. I ended up having to copy one of my old configurations over xorg.conf to actually make it work. Just so anyone who has the same problem again (including myself) can fix [...]