It's a dogs life
Thursday, 11. June 2009, 17:10:57
I just had to post this pic of "Oliver". We bought him a bed and this is how he uses it!
Webcam
Wednesday, 10. June 2009, 17:54:43
I bought a webcam a few weeks ago to use with Skype or Kopete. With Linux sometimes you just have to take pot luck and go for it as far as compatible hardware is concerned. I have a cheap little "Mikomi" webcam that works fine with Windows, but with Linux it's a different story. In Mepis it found it; sort of! All the colours were wrong and it was a mirror image. PCLinuxOS didn't find it, Mandriva didn't find it, Mint Linux didn't find it, and so on.
To use this webcam with skype, in Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 I found a little script that makes it work, "LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype". In fact if I need the webcam in another app I just delete "Skype" and replace it with the app I want. All this is done of course by just entering the script in a terminal. After typing the script, Skype just starts up as normal except with webcam support.
I now have another Mikomi webcam, which is 5mp. This camera has a built in mic, and works straight out of the box for Ubuntu 8.10 and 9.04. I now don't have to use the script anymore. This is the specs I get by typing "lsusb" in a terminal, with the webcam plugged in of course
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04f2:a133 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd Gateway Webcam
The model number is DC-7120 5mp mic and zoom webcam. It cost around £15.00.
To use this webcam with skype, in Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 I found a little script that makes it work, "LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype". In fact if I need the webcam in another app I just delete "Skype" and replace it with the app I want. All this is done of course by just entering the script in a terminal. After typing the script, Skype just starts up as normal except with webcam support.
I now have another Mikomi webcam, which is 5mp. This camera has a built in mic, and works straight out of the box for Ubuntu 8.10 and 9.04. I now don't have to use the script anymore. This is the specs I get by typing "lsusb" in a terminal, with the webcam plugged in of course
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04f2:a133 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd Gateway Webcam
The model number is DC-7120 5mp mic and zoom webcam. It cost around £15.00.
Project
Sunday, 7. June 2009, 14:00:34
I started a motorcycle rebuild last year! It was a complete strip down (boy did it need it!), I had the frame shot blasted and re-coated, with plastic. I stripped down the engine, and replaced all the piston ring,gudgeon pins, and clips. I re-ground all the valves in, changed all the seals, replaced parts that needed replacing, and even tried my hand at nickel plating, which worked to some degree. I tried electrolosys to remove rust from brackets, which does work, but takes a few days. It's quite easy to do, using an old bike battery, ordinary water, soda crystals, and an old spoon.
I later found out, an even easier method (but quite dangerous if not careful), is to submerse the parts in a diluted solution of patio cleaner and water. I was very impressed with how quickly (in front of my eyes), and how effectively this works. Of course this stuff is very dangerous stuff, and burns on contact with skin, and would blind you if it got near the eyes. I'm surprised it's sold over the counter actually. I dropped a rusty old bolt in, and within a few minutes, I pulled it out, spotless!
So the bike is back together, apart from the brakes and the exhaust. I have put the old exhaust on for now, so I could run the engine, until I find enough money to purchase a new exhaust at around £300.00. I think the Uinseann Exchequer can handle that later this year!
I later found out, an even easier method (but quite dangerous if not careful), is to submerse the parts in a diluted solution of patio cleaner and water. I was very impressed with how quickly (in front of my eyes), and how effectively this works. Of course this stuff is very dangerous stuff, and burns on contact with skin, and would blind you if it got near the eyes. I'm surprised it's sold over the counter actually. I dropped a rusty old bolt in, and within a few minutes, I pulled it out, spotless!
So the bike is back together, apart from the brakes and the exhaust. I have put the old exhaust on for now, so I could run the engine, until I find enough money to purchase a new exhaust at around £300.00. I think the Uinseann Exchequer can handle that later this year!
Just installed Ubuntu 9.04
Friday, 5. June 2009, 18:04:31
I have; for a few months been using Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex (8.10), and I have been quite pleased with it's performance on both my desktop computer and my laptop.
After creating a disk image of Ibex (using PING), I first; just out of interest, let my computer try and upgrade itself from a DVD with Ubuntu 9.04, and see what happens. I wasn't bothered really about losing any data on my desktop computer and even so, I had made an image, so I went for it! It took nearly an hour. When it had finished and re-booted, there was chaos Kaffeine wouldn't work, my DVB stick wouldn't work, my webcam wouldn't work, I could no longer watch a dvd!
So, that was it, scrub the system and install Ubuntu 9.04 from scratch. The DVD I have with Ubuntu is a special version of Ubuntu from "Linux Format Magazine", it not only has a gnome desktop, but a kde desktop as well, so it's basically a "Kubuntu" as well. If you boot from the DVD the special version is installed, and if you just go into the DVD, find the "iso" and burn it, you get a bog standard Ubuntu with not much in the way of applications installed. Which is OK if you have loads of bandwidth with which you can install more using Synaptic. I still couldn't watch a DVD or see anything in "youtube" until I installed all the usual stuff like the flash plugin etc which came to 40 mb in all! But there you go. all sorted now, and I'm quite impressed with it so far.
After creating a disk image of Ibex (using PING), I first; just out of interest, let my computer try and upgrade itself from a DVD with Ubuntu 9.04, and see what happens. I wasn't bothered really about losing any data on my desktop computer and even so, I had made an image, so I went for it! It took nearly an hour. When it had finished and re-booted, there was chaos Kaffeine wouldn't work, my DVB stick wouldn't work, my webcam wouldn't work, I could no longer watch a dvd!
So, that was it, scrub the system and install Ubuntu 9.04 from scratch. The DVD I have with Ubuntu is a special version of Ubuntu from "Linux Format Magazine", it not only has a gnome desktop, but a kde desktop as well, so it's basically a "Kubuntu" as well. If you boot from the DVD the special version is installed, and if you just go into the DVD, find the "iso" and burn it, you get a bog standard Ubuntu with not much in the way of applications installed. Which is OK if you have loads of bandwidth with which you can install more using Synaptic. I still couldn't watch a DVD or see anything in "youtube" until I installed all the usual stuff like the flash plugin etc which came to 40 mb in all! But there you go. all sorted now, and I'm quite impressed with it so far.
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