Since the introduction of google maps streets view two days ago, people are going crazy in trying to zoom in and find hidden gems in those captured images. If you don’t know about this click on the link above and you’ll see what I’m talking about, or you can just go to maps.google.com and zoom down to street level in either NYC or San Francisco and push the new Street View button (top right corner of the map). Really cool and well–atleast according to some on the net–Scary!!! So the question is:

Do we need someway of telling the google van that we don’t want to be in their photographs? Judge for yourselves….

So I finally broke down and registered nerdlogger.com with easydns.com. I’ve used their service for my own ayromlou.ca canadian domain, so I figured, why not. Under ayromlou.ca I was doing all kinds of redirects to get www.ayromlou.ca to point to nerdlogger.blogspot.com (which is the standard addressing scheme for blogs on blogger). Now, here is how I got my custom domain name (nerdlogger.com) to work:

1. Obviously first register your domain name. I went over to easydns.ca (.com is the same company) and registered nerdlogger.com (I use the DNS-Only service & Registry Fees)
2. Give them about 2-4 hours to propagate the DNS information. Do not change anything during this time.
3. Now after about 4 hours go back and login. You should see the Members page and somewhere in there there should be a listing of the domains you own under domain settings. Click the DNS command next to the domain you want to use and you should see a page with a bunch of stuff relating to your brand new domain.
4. Scroll down to hosts section and delete all the predefined hosts (click the check box next to them and delete).
5. Now on that same page (you might have to navigate back to it from the members page) under aliases setup a CNAME (alias) for www with the corresponding A Record (host) for ghs.google.com and press next to submit it. Make sure it says www only and ghs.google.com and nothing else.
6. Now you have to wait another couple of hours for the new information to propagate.
7. Log back into your easydns account and check the domain information page it should have a CNAME (alias) for www.yoursite.com. (Note the terminating DOT) and a Point to A Record (host) of ghs.google.com. (Note the terminating DOT).
8. Now log into your blogger account and switch to the settings page. Look under publishing tab and select Switch to: Custom Domain. Fill the Your Domain field with www.yoursite.com and press Save Settings.
9. Wait another 10 minutes and try going to http://www.yoursite.com and/or http://yoursite.com. Both should work at this point.

MythDora 4.0–Fedora Core 6.0 plus MythTV costumizations–is out. It is designed to format your hard drive and install everything needed for a fully functional MythTV System. MythPVR.com has created a three-part screencast of the installation process covering MythDora installation, configuration, and MythTV setup.

Well now that the dl.tv guys are doing it, I guess everyone will want to know. Yes, you can go to these websites and “ITube” yourself…..LIVE!!!!

Well, go on then, there is a world of people waiting to see you pick your nose on the net :-)

http://www.ustream.tv/
http://www.stickam.com/

Okay just came across Stage6…..and one word….WOW. I think we finally have something that will compete directly with TV (SD or HD) that is actually flexible enough for artists to create custom frame sizes in (think 2.35 aspect for your youtube movies with divx codec). Very nice…..

Check it out at:

http://stage6.divx.com/

Okay this was relatively simple…..

1. Make sure you can either ssh and become root and/or run xterm and become root on your N800.
2. Ssh to the N800 and become root (either through sudo grainroot or something similar)
3. Goto kbdd‘s website and download kbdd.tar.gz onto your N800.
4. Extract it to root’s home directory using tar -zvlf kbdd.tar.gz and cd to kbdd.
5. Unfold the keyboard/insert battries/press the button on top right corner and make sure the LED beside it starts blinking.
6. In Ssh client type hcitool scan to scan for bluetooth devices. If you have more than 1 device you might see multiple entries. Note the Bluetooth address in form of xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx . You will need this in the next step.
7. Use vi (in ssh session) to edit the file btkbd.conf and make it look as follows:

BDADDR="xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx"
KBTYPE=btfoldable
PORTNUM=2

8. Where xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx is the Bluetooth Address you got at step 6 and PORTNUM is the Bluetooth serial port number the script creates (2 should be safe, try not to use 0/1 as they are used for Cell phone connections).
9. Make sure your Keyboard and N800 are not paired before starting this process. If they are paired, delete the pairing first. Make keyboard discoverable (press the top right button beside the LED) and run btkbd command from ssh command line. Wait for a pop-up on your N800 and type 0000 as the pairing code.
10. If everything is working you should be able to type on the BT keyboard now. You can run btkbd again to stop the deamon.
11. If it works you can add menu shortcut. Just run the install_shortcut.sh script in kbdd directory.

Thought this might be useful for someone:

Install the libraw1394 and libavc1394

If you want to be able to stream from a DV camcorder, then you need to install the libraries libraw1394 and libavc1394:

If you use a Fedora Core distribution then you just need to install the libraries using:

%yum update
%yum install libraw1394 libavc1394

If you want to install the libraries from the source then you must download them from the libraw1394 and libavc1394 from their projects website. If you have a distribution that uses udev, then you must add/change the following line to the file 50-udev.rules in your /etc/udev/rules.d directory.

%vi /etc/udev/rules.d/50-udev.rules
# IEEE1394 (firewire) devices (must be before raw devices below)
KERNEL==”raw1394″, NAME=”%k”
KERNEL==”dv1394″, NAME=”dv1394/%k”
KERNEL==”video1394*”, NAME=”video1394/%n”

The following sections assume that you have a working linux installation with the IEEE 1394 (Firewire) libraries installed, either manually from the source code or through your distributions upgrade mechanism.

Stream with DV

Connect the DV camcorder with a Firewire cable to your computer, and check the creation of the file /dev/raw1394.

Run VLC with the following command line :

% vlc -vvv dv/rawdv:///dev/raw1394 -dv-caching 10000 –sout ‘#transcode{vcodec=WMV2,vb=512,scale=1,acodec=mp3,ab=192,channels=2}:std{access=mmsh,mux=asfh,url=:8080}’ –sout-transcode-fps=25.0

where:

• dv/rawdv:// is the DV input and /dev/raw1394 the device file
• dv-caching is the delay is miliseconds (ms) (start with a high value, 10s or so, and lower it later)
• sout is the stream output chain that is used to stream the DV camcorder as a multimedia stream over the network. The transcode syntax is explained in the chapter about transcoding. The example as given above generates a multimedia stream that is compatible with Windows Media Player
• sout-transcode-fps is the number of pictures per second 25.0 that the transcode module should generate of the requested audio/video codec.

Using hdhomerun_config command you issue the following (after tuning into the channel ofcourse):

1) hdhomerun_config set /tuner0/target none
2) hdhomerun_config set /tuner0/channel qam:
a) hdhomerun_config set /tuner0/streaminfo
3) hdhomerun_config set /tuner0/program
4) hdhomerun_config set /tuner0/target

MCast Address is in range of: 224.0.0.0 –> 239.255.255.255

Front:

Single LED – Power.

Window – left to right:
- Ethernet link.
- Tuner 0 streaming video.
- Tuner 1 streaming video.
- IR detector.

Back:

Looking at the back – left to right:
- Power.
- Ethernet.
- Tuner 1.
- Tuner 0.

The Windows GUI version of hdhomerun_config will display the signal strength and signal quality updating every second.

Under linux or osx you can use “watch” with hdhomerun_config:
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF get /tuner0/channel 8vsb:
watch hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF get /tuner0/status

(If you have more than one HDHomeRun then specify the device ID rather than FFFFFFFF)

- OTA: http://www.remotecentral.com/hdtv/index.html
- RDC: http://www.remotecentral.com/hdtv/rogers.htm

The CLI version of hdhomerun_config supports running an automatic channel scan.

The CLI version of hdhomerun_config can be downloaded from:
http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1923

Usage:

hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF scan

For example:

OTA ATSC:
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF scan /tuner0
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF scan /tuner1

Digital Cable:
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF scan /tuner0
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF scan /tuner1

To save a 30 second unfiltered clip of a broadcast stream:

1) Use HDHomeRun Config (GUI) to choose the physical channel.
Ensure VLC is not running for the next commands…

2) Open a cmd prompt and change into the HDHomeRun program directory:
cd “C:\Program Files\Silicondust\HDHomeRun”

3) Set the filter:
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF set /tuner0/filter 0×0000-0x1FFE

4) Save the stream to disk:
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF save /tuner0 sample.ts

5) Wait 30 seconds and stop the stream by pressing Ctrl-C.

You use hdhomerun_config to manually configure HDHomeRun to stream video to a PC running VLC…

You will need:

VLC – http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
hdhomerun_config – http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1923

1) Discover HDHomeRun

Run “hdhomerun_config discover” to find the HDHomeRun units on the local network.

If you have more than one HDHomeRun on your network then replace the wildcard FFFFFFFF Device ID in the examples with the Device ID of the HDHomeRun you wish to control.

2) Run a channel scan

hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF scan /tuner0

3) Set the channel

Antenna:
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF set /tuner0/channel 8vsb:
Cable:
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF set /tuner0/channel qam:

Note that the channel is the physical ATSC channel, not the channel advertised by the TV station. Antennaweb.org is a good site for determining which stations are nearby and what physical channels they operate on: http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx

Check the signal strength using the following command:
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF get /tuner0/status

4) Select the program number

hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF get /tuner0/streaminfo

hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF set /tuner0/program

5) Launch VLC and open network stream
From the command line:
vlc udp://@:1234

From the GUI:
Launch VLC
File -> Open Network Stream
Choose UDP/RTP, Port 1234

6) Set the target for the video stream

hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF set /tuner0/target :1234

Note that the target setting is automatically cleared if the target machine is not listening on the specified port. ie if VLC is not running or you quit VLC.

Troubleshooting

Check the signal strength using the following command:
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF get /tuner0/status

Check the target using the following command:
hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF get /tuner0/target

If it reports “none” then most likely the pc was not listening on the target port and the ip/port was automatically cleared. Double check the following and then set the target again:
- Check that VLC is running and is using “udp://@” or “udp://@:1234″.
- Check the IP address of the machine VLC is running on.
- Check that the port is not blocked by a firewall.

If the target is correct and the LED on the HDHomeRun indicates it is streaming video then the most likely problem is a firewall blocking the port (UDP port 1234 used in this example).

1. Insert CD/DVD source

2. Fire up a Terminal, you can then determine the device that is you CD/DVD drive using the following command:

$ drutil status
Vendor Product Rev
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-835E GAND

Type: DVD-ROM Name: /dev/disk1
Cur Write: 8x DVD Sessions: 1
Max Write: 8x DVD Tracks: 1
Overwritable: 00:00:00 blocks: 0 / 0.00MB / 0.00MiB
Space Free: 00:00:00 blocks: 0 / 0.00MB / 0.00MiB
Space Used: 364:08:27 blocks: 1638627 / 3.36GB / 3.13GiB
Writability:
Book Type: DVD-ROM

3. Umount the disk with the following command:

$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
Disk /dev/disk1 unmounted

4. Create the ISO file with the dd utility (may take some time):

$ dd if=/dev/disk1 of=file.iso bs=2048

5. Test the ISO image by mounting the new file (or open with Finder):

$ hdid file.iso

6. The ISO image can then be burnt to a blank CD/DVD.

To take a screen shot, hold down the following keyboard shortcuts.

* shift + command (the Apple key) + 3 for a shot of the entire screen.
* shift + command + 4 for a way of clicking and dragging around the area you want a shot of.
* shift + command + 4 then press space to be able to click on a window or other interface element (menubar, dock, icons etc.) to take a screen shot of that.

Easy enough. Each of these saves a file to your desktop named “Picture 1.jpg” (or a higher number if the file already exists).

If you want to take a screenshot using the Terminal (Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities) here is how. Just type the commands in (except the quotes).

* “screencapture ~/Desktop/screen.jpg” Takes a full screen shot and save it to screen.jpg on your Desktop.
* “screencapture -iW ~/Desktop/screen.jpg” Same thing as #3 above, just click a window to take a screenshot. If you push space it will go into mouse selection mode (same thing as #2 above).

Grab (Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities) can also be used to take screenshots. It provides an easy user interface, as well as a way of doing timed screen shots and changing the mouse pointer style (option located in the preferences).

So I’ve been wondering about Folder Actions for a while now….they are actually quite neat, if you know what they do. This is a feature of the Finder that very few people use, yet it is so powerful. Folder actions allow you to perform an action to any file that is dropped into the folder. What you can do is only limited by what you can script, or what scripts you can find.

Start by creating a new folder and checking that folder actions are enabled by right-clicking (control-clicking) and selecting “Enable Folder Actions”. If it says “Disable Folder Actions” then you are all right, and don’t need to change anything.

Next, attach an action to the folder by again right-clicking (control-clicking) on the folder and choosing “Attach a Folder Action…”. A number of example scripts are located in Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts. The majority of these examples involve image manipulation and converting from one file format to another.

Selecting one of these format converting scripts will mean, for example, that all jpeg images dropped into the folder will be turned into tiff images.

However, as I mentioned at the start of this tip, this is only a taste of what you can do. Any applescript, automator workflow or shell script can be attached, and therefore the possibilities are endless!

Many Mac OS X applications allow rectangular selections. That is, selecting multiple lines of text, without having to select up to the end of each line. This can be useful if you have created a text formatted table, and want to select an entire column, or if you want to modify the same thing on every line in a document.

To do this type of selection, hold down the Option (alt) Key while the cursor is over a block of text in a cocoa application. Notice that the mouse arrow changes to a cross.

With the Option Key still held, click and drag to make a selection without the text up to the end of the line being automatically selected when you drag down over multiple lines.

If you want to do something particularly neat, once you have made a selection hold down the Command Key as well as the Option Key, which will allow you to make another selection somewhere else in the document, whilst keeping the first block of text still selected.

This works just about everywhere you are able to edit text, including Microsoft Word (although the cursor doesn’t change to a cross) and text boxes in Safari. As you would expect, it works in TextEdit, Mail, and all the other usual Cocoa Apps.

So all you Mac freaks….here is something to show your PC friends. Set your system screen saver to something cool (RSS Visualizer) and run the Terminal. At the command line type the following command (make sure your Desktop’s background is not covered with windows):

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background

Neat or what? You can stop it using Ctrl-C.