For those of you who got hooked already by the magical kernel patch that went into 2.6.38 and seriously improved latency with high load, there is a special daemon now that takes it further: uLatencyD. And for the lazy Ubuntu people there is a ppa available, too:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:poelzi/ulatencyd-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ulatencyd
It works immediately and in my experience so far: veeery nice.
Enjoy.
Converting Vobsub (.sub/.idx) to .srt in Linux
Mencoder rips the subtitles for you as I just posted. But what if you want a .srt file? The problem is that vobsub subtitles used in DVDs are made as images. This means you first need to convert the images back to text. That is usually done with the help of OCR. And not differently for subtitles. But there's already a special open source Linux program available for that purpose here.
How to Rip Subtitles with Mplayer or better Mencoder
Subtitle ripping changed recently. It used to be done with mplayer, but now it's actually done with mencoder. The current command is
The subtitle files will be called subtitle.idx and subtitle.sub.
mencoder -o /dev/null dvd:// -oac copy -ovc copy -vobsubout subtitle.
The subtitle files will be called subtitle.idx and subtitle.sub.
Fixing OpenSUSE's 'No Devices Matches MBR Identifier'
Check the file in the subfolder boot/grub/mbrid. Do sudo fdisk -l and check that the ID of your usb stick is the same as the one in the file. If not, change it. Just deleting the file won't work, then the code will assume you want to boot from CD or DVD and fail if it doesn't find one. But you can also try to boot with the kernel parameter nombridcheck. But unfortunately for me nothing worked. It seems OpenSUSE USB boot is pretty broken ...
Step by Step Tutorial to the Android Development Setup
Check out this great screenshot-laden extensive tutorial to setup Eclipse and the Android SDK.
Powertop 2.0 beta
Check out the new version of powertop. It has still to be compiled from source code. Here's the release post
Clearing the Cache and Data of the Android Facebook App
The Facebook App likes to grow and grow in Android. The reason is that it never cleans cache and data. And you often can't even do it manually in Settings, Applications, Facebook, Clear Cache or Clear Data. But it turns out all you need to do it log out and back in and the cache is gone. Of course if you want a real fix, don't forget to file a bug report inside the app.
XBMC with VAAPI on Poulsbo (Intel GMA500) or other VAAPI Systems
It's not possible directly right now due to limitations of the existing GMA 500 drivers (IEGD, PSB, ...) and probably other vaapi drivers. But if you have mplayer-vaapi running, it's really easy - because you can set up xbmc to use external players with XBMC 10.
Encoding Videos for Android
Yeah, I know I'm being lazy again, but hey, if someone else already did all the work. Check it out at Ubuntu here.
Google Chrome married to Flash
For a single version during beta, 10.1.102.64ubuntu0.9.10.1m, Chrome beta supported a nice, elegantly working plugin blocker. In the content settings you could choose to use plugins on demand. Now in 10.1.102.65ubuntu0.9.10.1 it's disappeared again.
I think the reasons are probably the Adobe alliance allowing Google to distribute Flash with its browser and phones on the one hand and Google getting its money from advertizing. And flash ads probably just make more money. We can conclude that Chrome will probably be the last browser to include features users want but advertizers don't.
I think the reasons are probably the Adobe alliance allowing Google to distribute Flash with its browser and phones on the one hand and Google getting its money from advertizing. And flash ads probably just make more money. We can conclude that Chrome will probably be the last browser to include features users want but advertizers don't.
Mobile Version
From now on when you visit my blog with your mobile phone you will see a small no-nonsense version adjusted to mobile phones. This is a nice new feature of Blogger Draft.
Saving 2 W power by Making Sure Laptop_Mode oesn't destroy your HD
Laptop_mode is actually a great thing, as it activates a few powerful power saving modes in Linux, most importantly disk power saving and delayed writes. But if you use it with out of the box settings, there are two major bugs in Laptop Mode Tools, which could cause your disk to crash and are the reason it's normally disabled. Now let me show you how to work around them and easily save 2 W of power:
What to do if you mobile has battery problems
Sometimes mobile phones with Li-Ion battery have a problem that causes them not to provide anywhere near the expected run time. A possible problem is that not all cells are charged equally. This can happen especially if you have not charged your phone until it said it's full the first time you charged it. But it can happen in any case.
Now a great workaround for this problem is to follow this guide posted on the xda-developers forum: You fully charge the phone. (until it says it's full) and then power it off and then:
1. Wait until it shows its fully charged.
2. Unplug the phone and wait for it to turn off lights and display.
3. Replug the phone and go to No. 1. (Repeat about 10 times)
Now a great workaround for this problem is to follow this guide posted on the xda-developers forum: You fully charge the phone. (until it says it's full) and then power it off and then:
1. Wait until it shows its fully charged.
2. Unplug the phone and wait for it to turn off lights and display.
3. Replug the phone and go to No. 1. (Repeat about 10 times)
The Second Biggest Android Market Problem
The biggest problem is that Android's Market is hard to grasp, as there is so much stuff in there and people can pretty much post anything anywhere. The Second Biggest Problem is that Apps never work well on all phones. And that's hardly something to blame the poor developers for. They can't have all phones. There are two approaches to fix this:
1. Improve the platform robustness: APIs should whenever possible work exactly the same on all devices so programmers need not reprogram their software for each device. That's the whole purpose basing them on Java in the first place.
2. Provide a testing platform: App developers should have access to a means of seeing how their apps work on different phones. One way would be a technical solution that runs the devices' firmwares in a Virtual Machine. Many bugs should be fixable this way. Another way would be the open source way: A group could be created where people with the same phone join groups and developers can post new applications. Then each group tests them and reports how they work on the real devices.
What do you think:
1. Improve the platform robustness: APIs should whenever possible work exactly the same on all devices so programmers need not reprogram their software for each device. That's the whole purpose basing them on Java in the first place.
2. Provide a testing platform: App developers should have access to a means of seeing how their apps work on different phones. One way would be a technical solution that runs the devices' firmwares in a Virtual Machine. Many bugs should be fixable this way. Another way would be the open source way: A group could be created where people with the same phone join groups and developers can post new applications. Then each group tests them and reports how they work on the real devices.
What do you think:
Saturating your Link with Lftp
I've been looking for a tool that downloads with several connections at the same time for a while, like GetRight for Windows used to be. Because without a tool like that, you can't really take advantage of fast connections with 20 and more Mbit. Now I've found a tool that does that and even surpasses my expectations: lftp. Lftp does not only support this, it supports the feature in http and ftp like many programs, but also in sftp, fish, ftps and https. And the usage is extremely simple: lftp pget url.
Free Time? Try some Open Source Video Games
Wikipedia has a nice long list of open source games, linking to their description, often including videos. It will keep you well busy over the free time. A personal recommendation is UfoAI (Alien Invasion), a great 3D round based first person shooter and infrastructure building combination:
It's fascinating to first build your infrastructure and later venture inside it fighting of invading aliens. Of course first you have to select and train your people, research and build of steal guns and ammo, etc. But be careful, the game can be quite addictive.
More Videos.
If you liked this post, you might want to link to it and subscribe to the RSS feed so you won't miss the next one. In any case, check the related posts below. Maybe I'm just having a really bad day and normally write much more interesting posts about theses subjects. Or maybe you'll only understand what I meant here once you've read all my other posts on the topic. ;-)
It's fascinating to first build your infrastructure and later venture inside it fighting of invading aliens. Of course first you have to select and train your people, research and build of steal guns and ammo, etc. But be careful, the game can be quite addictive.
More Videos.
If you liked this post, you might want to link to it and subscribe to the RSS feed so you won't miss the next one. In any case, check the related posts below. Maybe I'm just having a really bad day and normally write much more interesting posts about theses subjects. Or maybe you'll only understand what I meant here once you've read all my other posts on the topic. ;-)
Creating an Ext4 Filesystem on a Raid 5 with Six 4K sector Hard Disks
mkfs.ext4 -E stride=16,stripe-width=5 -b 4096 -L somelabel /dev/md5
Make your Android power efficient in any situation (for free!)
In the following post I will explain how to use cpu tuner, a completely free and open source app for android. All you need is root and some time. It's a follow up on and summary of my various related posts you can mostly see below ("related posts") on working with governors to increase power efficiency in Linux. This is of course something that a) Linux and b) Android and c) your phone manufacturer should already have done. But as they didn't...
Why I'm *not* Signing Up for Google Chrome OS Pilot Program
It's been all over the news that Google is starting a pilot program for it's Chrome OS, which I expect to be out within a few months. The pilot program is probably meant to get the last polish for the system. As my readers will know I'm always excited about new technology, especially dealing with Linux. But here's why I ended up not even trying to get into the program:
Uncompressed PDFs in CUPS - A Problem to Go Crazy
I found no solution. I just wanted to air my frustration that CUPS completely ignores the settings I put into /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf. Hence I can try making better settings all I want, they are completely ignored. If anyone knows a fix, please tell me. I just spend 45 mins on this in vain.
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