Dispelled.ca

Install the Adblock Plus extension to your browser and then add these custom filters. That’s it! No more Facebook on every site you visit.

||fbcdn.net^$domain=~facebook.com|~facebook.net|~fbcdn.com|~fbcdn.net
||fbcdn.com^$domain=~facebook.com|~facebook.net|~fbcdn.com|~fbcdn.net
||facebook.net^$domain=~facebook.com|~facebook.net|~fbcdn.com|~fbcdn.net
||facebook.com^$domain=~facebook.com|~facebook.net|~fbcdn.com|~fbcdn.net

I had this somewhere on the site for when I change browsers, but lost it. Found this originally on Lifehacker. Thanks Whitson!

Computers No comments

First I downloaded the SDK here, then downloaded Eclipse Classic here. Threw them both in a folder on the desktop and extracted them. Opened a terminal, navigate to ~/Desktop/android sdk/android-sdk-linux/tools and type

./android

This starts the SDK Manager. You can install the updates and packages from here. It had the Android 4.0 ICS packages highlighted, so I just clicked on install 5 packages in the bottom right hand corner and let them download.

A dialog popped up saying a package that depends on ADB has been updated, and to restart ADB. Click yes and it started the ADB Server.

Next cd’ed back to the eclipse folder, and typed

./eclipse

and followed the instructions here. Here is a repost of that page.

Downloading the ADT Plugin

Use the Update Manager feature of your Eclipse installation to install the latest revision of ADT on your development computer.<>

Assuming that you have a compatible version of the Eclipse IDE installed, as described in Preparing for Installation, above, follow these steps to download the ADT plugin and install it in your Eclipse environment.

1. Start Eclipse, then select Help > Install New Software….
2. Click Add, in the top-right corner.
3. In the Add Repository dialog that appears, enter “ADT Plugin” for the Name and the following URL for the Location:

   https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/

4. Click OKNote: If you have trouble acquiring the plugin, try using “http” in the Location URL, instead of “https” (https is preferred for security reasons).
5. In the Available Software dialog, select the checkbox next to Developer Tools and click Next.
6. In the next window, you’ll see a list of the tools to be downloaded. Click Next.
7. Read and accept the license agreements, then click Finish.Note: If you get a security warning saying that the authenticity or validity of the software can’t be established, click OK.
8. When the installation completes, restart Eclipse.

Configuring the ADT Plugin

After you’ve successfully downloaded the ADT as described above, the next step is to modify your ADT preferences in Eclipse to point to the Android SDK directory:

1. Select Window > Preferences… to open the Preferences panel (Mac OS X: Eclipse > Preferences).
2. Select Android from the left panel.

You may see a dialog asking whether you want to send usage statistics to Google. If so, make your choice and click Proceed. You cannot continue with this procedure until you click Proceed.

1. For the SDK Location in the main panel, click Browse… and locate your downloaded SDK directory.
2. Click Apply, then OK.

Done! If you haven’t encountered any problems, then the installation is complete. If you’re installing the Android SDK for the first time, return to Installing the SDK to complete your setup.

I went with the defaults, accepted all the agreements, didn’t send usage statistics to google, and just installed the 4.0 branch, not the 2.1 stuff. Maybe I’ll add that later, 97% of phones sounds like a good choice.

Next I started following the instructions here. It looks like it downloads them again from within Eclipse, and I might have been able to skip the first SDK manager download. Should have read the instructions. Here is another repost of their page.

Install a Platform

To run the Hello World application, you need to install at least one Android platform in your SDK environment. If you have not already performed this step, you need to do it now.

To install a platform in Eclipse:

1. In the Android SDK and AVD Manager, choose Available Packages in the left panel.
2. In the right panel, expand the Android Repository list to display the components available for installation.
3. Select at least one platform to install, and click Install Selected. If you aren’t sure which platform to install, use the latest version.

Create an AVD

To learn more about how to use AVDs and the options available to you, see Managing Virtual Devices.

In this tutorial, you will run your application in the Android Emulator. Before you can launch the emulator, you must create an Android Virtual Device (AVD). An AVD defines the system image and device settings used by the emulator.

To create an AVD:

1. In Eclipse, select Window > Android SDK and AVD Manager.
2. Select Virtual Devices in the left panel.
3. Click New….The Create New AVD dialog appears.
4. Type the name of the AVD, such as “my_avd”.
5. Choose a target.The target is the platform (that is, the version of the Android SDK, such as 2.3.3) you want to run on the emulator. For this tutorial, choose the latest platform that you have installed and ignore the rest of the fields.
6. Click Create AVD.

Opened the SDK manager from within Eclipse ( Window > Preferences > Android SDK manager) and checked Android 4.0 (API 14) and clicked Install 4 packages in the lower right hand corner. Created the AVD. Selected my AVD and started it. A working Android emulator! Excellent! Next I followed the rest of the page here. It takes for freaking ever to load. Started looking for a fix. See ya later, I’m off to make some apps! Cheers.

Android, Computers, Electronics, Phones, Ubuntu No comments

Finally picked up the Samsung Galaxy S2 that I had been waiting for. Dual 1.2Ghz processors, 4.3″ AMOLED display @ 800×480 and 16GB internal memory. Running Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread.

Buying this, I knew I wanted an Android phone. I wanted to get a new one a few months ago, but all that was out on Sasktel was the HTC Incredible S. Then I read about all the dual-core phones coming out this year. So I waited and I am glad, this is an amazing phone.

Also I bought a screen protector and case for it. I’m still trying to figure out how to carry it around, it’s a bit big for a pocket. Applying the screen protector was kind of scary, but worked great, just followed the directions.

And how cool is that AC adapter. That’s the way to do things right there. After tweaking things for most of the day, I’ve found it easy to configure and use, and will be able to keep in touch with everyone better than with my old phone. Back on the phone nerd after a couple of year hiatus.

Computers, Electronics, Phones, Reviews No comments

I know there is a thousand other ways to do this (and to automate it) and some of them may be easier, but this is my way and is working for me. These are MythTV MPEG files Transcoded from NUV to MPEG (High Quality). I want them in Xvid, de-interlaced and the file size reduced.

1. Open Avidemux
2. Let it index the MPEG file

Under Video:
3. Press Encoding on the left and change Copy to MPEG-4 ASP (Xvid)
4. Press Configure and under Main change the encoding type to Single Pass – Bitrate, and set the Target Bitrate to 1500 (kb/s)

5. Press Filters and Under Interlacing Choose Deinterlace (A port of smart interlace). Accept the two default settings, Motion Threshold to 15, and Blend Threshold to 9.

Under Audio:
6. Change Copy to MP3(lame)

7. Cut out the commercials by navigating to the beginning of the break and selecting Selection:Start on the bottom bar below the video. Navigate to the end of the commercial and select Selection:End, then use Cut in the edit menu to take it out. Repeat this for each commercial break.

8. When done editing, save the file with an avi extension and wait for it to complete. This takes my 2.2gb mythTV files down to 600mb. It takes about 50 minutes to transcode.

Computers, MythTV, Ubuntu 1 comment

A few notes on getting some old computers running. In this post am installing Ubuntu 10.10 i386 on a 600Mhz CPU with 448MB ram and a 16Mb Voodoo3 card.

I downloaded the regular install CD of Maverick and ran it. It completed with no errors, and booted to a 800×600 screen. I read some posts about the Voodoo card and found it can do higher resolutions than that.Ctrl-Alt-F1 and login.

$ sudo gdm stop

$ sudo X -configure

$ sudo cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Stop the xserver and create a xorg.conf file, then copy it to the correct location. I rebooted and it was still stuck in 800×600. I took a look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log and it gave me the answer. A default monitor is being used and the good resolutions are all out of range for vertical sync.

>> Keep Reading >>

Computers, Ubuntu No comments

First I just installed the card and booted. Hoping that it would just work I tried some of the basic programs.

$ sudo apt-get install tvtime zapping xawtv

For me, none of these programs worked. Some start but with errors or black screens for output. I tried to get them working.

$ sudo apt-get install ivtv-utils
$ scan

This did not get me anywhere. I remember doing this with a PVR-150 before. I did some more reading and found that the 1600 needs drivers and firmware. Here is a link (but the download didn’t work for me).  So I found this one, and unpacked it to my desktop.

http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb/archive/tip.tar.bz2

>> Keep Reading >>

Computers, Recording, Ubuntu 1 comment

Downloaded Ubuntu 10.10 PPC from here (direct link to 10.10 powerpc.iso).

Burned to a CD in K3B and booted it on the IBook (I already had yaboot from a previous install). Installed great. Nice resolution, good speed. No 3D acceleration? Not acceptable nowadays. According to lspci, the video card in this laptop is a Radeon Mobility M7 LW (Radeon Mobility 7500) Ok. Lets get this done. Ran glxgears. Not there. Install it and check for dri as well.

sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-glx
sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dri

Installed. Everything looked good, but still no 3D acceleration. Glxgears is showing 114 frames in 5 seconds. XVid video choking on a 624×352 tv show. It’s a video problem for sure. Is rendering working?

>> Keep Reading >>

Computers, Ubuntu No comments

Last night I did some testing and got the Roland-MC303 working as a sound module. As a sequencer, it is less than average, but as a sound module, it is great.

So after getting the piano set up upstairs, there was one big problem. The studio is on the opposite side of the house, in the basement, a good 70 feet away. I realized I could run a midi cable there, and then run a 1/4 inch instrument cable back to bring the piano’s sweet sounds into the studio. The maximum ‘recommended’ distance of a midi cable is 50 feet, but after some searching, I saw that Cat5e cable can be run a bit further. If you are looking to buy premade midi extenders, there is many people out there selling.

>> Keep Reading >>

Computers, Electronics, Music, Recording 2 comments

Well it is going to take a month before I can set up all the gear in our new house, so I have been doing a bit of research on how everything is going to be set up. My first worries are:

How to record the V-drums
At first I was worried that I might be restricted to using the stereo outs (L, R) from the TD-9 brain, and would have no control over the final mix. After reading some forums, I found this is not an issue.

You attach a midi cable from the TD-9 to the computer, and that records only the midi signals of your playing to a sequencer software on the computer. You attach another midi cable from the computer to the TD-9, and then an audio cable from the stereo outs to the computer. Now you can playback the midi signals you recorded onto the computer, back to the TD-9, and record them through the audio outs.

>> Keep Reading >>

Computers, Drums, Music, Recording No comments

Hooking up the mixer and guitars worked great. The programs I have been starting with are Jack Control (QjackCTL) to start/stop the Jack server, and Ardour for multi track recording.

For levels, I have been using QAmix for quick level changes, and alsamixer for bigger changes. For the laptop, the default levels were way too hot and there was a hiss in the background. I looked into QAmix and all the levels were set to 100%, so setting them down to 75% took care of the hiss and brought the levels down just right.

To record, you need QjackCTL open with the server started, Ardour open with a project started, and then the only thing to do is make the connections from one program to the other. JACK is really just virtual patch cords for programs. You have an input and an output and you plug em together.

>> Keep Reading >>

Computers, Music, Recording, Ubuntu No comments