Last time, I taught you how to create a time-lapse video using FFMPEG and the Terminal or (GIMP for animated GIFs) in Ubuntu Linux. But not many people are comfortable using the command line. I for one certainly made that post so that I wouldn’t forget how!
This time around, I have a simpler, easier solution that won’t get your shutter fingers dirty using OpenShot Video Editor.
So I installed WinFF the other day from the repository. I’ve used WinFF before and it’s a great cross-platform FFMPEG frontend for converting and transcoding videos and audios.
When WinFF is all set up, it works like a charm. However when installing it for the first time, or in my case setting it up again after a long period of time, problems revolving around codecs usually come up.
The problem isn’t particularly difficult, it’s just frustrating. Read the rest of this entry »
There are already several tutorials out there on the ‘net on how to make an IR LED pen. Some ranging from simple hacks to full-blown manufacturing. The problem with the simple hacks, though, is that they are clunky, unwieldy, or unsightly (like this one, really cheap to make, but uses tape to keep it together!!!). And anything more complex than that was just too much hard work. The closest thing I found was an IR flashlight tutorial, but it uses a MagLite, which is a bit more expensive than necessary, and a flashlight is unidirectional which will limit it’s use. Plus, you’ll also need to bring out your drill. Nope, not simple enough.
So I got my brains out of the drawer, dusted it off, and started using it a bit, and thought up of a cheap, simple, and really easy-to-do but very elegant solution! The philosophy behind it? Don’t reinvent the wheel. Read the rest of this entry »
Just geeking out:
I need a Teensy++ 2.0 Board. Imagine the DIY hacking possibilities! Motion controlled light switches, colorful yet mindless LED displays, mobile robot controllers, console hacks, the possibilities are mind-numbing!
If you guys want to buy me one, you can buy it from the PJRC Store. Just send me a PM via our Facebook page or in the comments (be sure to leave your email address so I can tell you where to send it).:D
Thank you very much in advance!
What would you do if you were in the middle of the desert and you needed to access Google Maps or read some email or YM your boss (I said “what if”, just play along.:P ). Just to make matters worse, you haven’t installed the drivers and software of your phone on your Windows box and (gasp!) you didn’t bring along the driver disc! Well, if you were running Ubuntu, this wouldn’t be a problem. Ubuntu Karmic Koala enables you to connect your phone quickly and easily, no drivers needed. I tested this on Karmic Koala with a Sony Ericsson G502, but the steps should be the same for most phones.
Here are the steps to quickly connect your phone to the internet.
Editing Project Victory with Blender
After 9 months in the making, Project Victory is finally completed! It tooks us 6 months to shoot, spread over 2 countries in 6 different locations, and 3 months of post-processing the images building the three collages and getting everyone’s approval, editing and re-editing the video, implementing new ideas, and having fun all the way.
You can watch the video over at the Project Victory website.
Project Victory was a photo project that my batchmates did over the last couple of months, and we recorded most of everything that happened along the way. It was created with a mix of open-source and closed-source software in Ubuntu, using BibblePro for RAW conversion, GIMP for some graphics and editing, and Blender for the 3D scenes and the video sequence editing. Read more at the Project Victory website.
I was in the market for a new bag to hold my suddenly increasing gear. If ever you’ve tried traveling by plane, you’ll know how difficult it is to lug your gear around in your backpack. It’s heavy enough to break your back. And checking them in isn’t always an option because it’ll surely bring your luggage to the weight limit.
Enter the airport-friendly bags for the modern photographer. There were several brands that I was choosing from: Pelican 1514, Lowepro ProRoller Mini, ThinkTank Airport Security and a cheap Nikon rolling backpack that I found in one of the stores, among others. All of these choices offered two things I was looking for:
Breaking Barriers
Do you tire of reformatting your computer so that it can be set up with the prescribed environment determined by your superior or client? How about the hassle of making sure that there is a backup copy of your past project? Is quality assurance testing a pain because you have to reset your environment over and over again?
Well I did tire of that hassle. And I also tired of having to run my computer on a specific OS, just because that was what the task prescribed. So I went out and used a few proven tools to remedy the situation, which will be what this guide will be all about.
It’s now been over 2 weeks since Project Peach’s Big Buck Bunny opened in theaters last May 30, or at least in home theaters. So if you haven’t seen it yet, now would be a good time to head on over to the Big Buck Bunny website and download a copy. If you’re still downloading pirated movies, here’s a breath of fresh air: this short movie is given to you completely free of charge.
Big Buck Bunny is the story of a large, but kind rabbit who is bullied by three naughty rodents. Finally, Big Buck Bunny decides to fight back, and…well you’ll have to see it for yourself. The visuals are breath-taking, from the tall grass blowing in the wind, to the stream reflecting off sunlight, to the cute and cuddly creatures. Read the rest of this entry »
I saw a Kohjinsha SH6KP10A for only Y40K in Nipponbashi! I have seen the Kohjinsha quite a few times before, but never really paid attention because it was a local brand and was as expensive as a more powerful, albeit larger laptop. So coming home, I decided to do a little forward research on the Kohjinsha, specifically on Linux support. It only had an Intel A100 600Mhz processor (for reasons unknown to me, it’s faster than my 2.4Ghz main laptop), although it did have an Intel 945 GPU, which was perfect for 3D in Linux. If this thing could run a Vista, it would be quite fast when running Ubuntu. I compared the price vs. feature set with other UMPCs. TheSamsung Q1 was another favorite of Ubuntu users, but as it did not have a real keyboard (I need to be able to work on it; the optional keyboard attachment made it not so ultra-mobile, yuck). Searching the Ubuntu Forums yielded few, but very promising and helpful results. Checking them out, I found a few owners of Kohjinshas getting Gutsy on their UMPCs.
It was only 40K yen if you were going to get a Yahoo!BB subscription with it. But at 60K, it was still a bargain, since it was only 6mos used and at half the price of a new one. And I got myself one last weekend.
Taking it home, what was my first impression? First of all, it was preloaded with Vista, and instead of a recovery disc it had a 4GB recovery partition. I had to test all the hardware first to see if everything was A-Ok. Touch screen worked, webcam worked, the controls beside the screen (a lot of ‘em: D-pad, track pointer, launcher, shutter, rotation, enter, brightnes. scroll keys. left and right mouse buttons), webcam, TV tuner, bluetooth and WiFi, all working perfectly. And you had no less than 3 ways to control your pointer: via the touch pad, the thumb pointer, and touch screen. As for text input, well you had the physical keyboard when you really need the typing speed, or you can use the touch screen.
While it still had Vista, I decided to do a quick speed comparison test. Nothing fancy, just a quick test to see which OS would allow me to work more before I had to get off the train at the station. In short, boot times.
Here are the results:
Windows Vista Home Basic Startup time:
1:10.03 – Time to welcome screen
1:49.83 – Time to desktop display
4:06.85 – Time to finish loading everything
Ubuntu Gutsy LiveCD startup time:
0:22.21 – Time to LiveCD menu
3:02.19 – Time to opening tune
4:26.33 – Time to finish loading everything
Vista was able to boot in just a little over 4 minutes (about the time it takes for a train to get to the next station) and 20 seconds faster than Ubuntu. That’s swell, until you consider the fact that IT WAS A LIVECD! For those not in the know, a LiveCD basically allows you to run an OS without installing on your computer. That’s right, that 4 minute Vista on my fast hard drive barely beat Ubuntu running off a CD drive! Hey, I wanted a fair fight, so I had to handicap Ubuntu..<snicker>
Alright, so what are the real comparison figures for Ubuntu and Vista when both are installed in the hard disk?
Ubuntu Gutsy LiveCD startup time:
1:01.44 – Time to Login Screen
1:10.41 – Time to opening tune
1:35.58 – Time to desktop display
1:39.49 – Time to finish loading everything
You could argue that the Vista desktop already appears at about 1:50, but you just can’t do anything with it yet for another 30 seconds, where you can *technically* do something e.g. click a button/menu, just don’t expect your computer to respond well.
So Vista was out and Ubuntu was in, and without needing to install any drivers at all, the CF and SD card reader, controls beside the screen, the webcam, 3D card, sound, and most everything worked out-of-the-box and without my intervention. And from the info in the Ubuntu Forums thread I had found earlier, I was able to get Koji up to speed.
So right now, I can type away on the train(where I wrote most of this post’s content yesterday on the train to Kyoto). Heck, I could do away with the typing altogether and just scribble away with Cellwriter.
I don’t really need to say this but I’m one very, very proud Ubuntu-powered Kohjinsha owner!
