1) Bring up VLC and select File/Open Capture Device (Ctrl-A). You should see this screen modify the bottom portion (Advanced Options), so it looks like this picture below. You can decrease screen-fps to 15 if you like to speed things up a bit.

2) On that same screen Click on the Settings… button beside Stream/Save and you’ll see the following screen. Make sure it’s configured this way if you want to do the streaming through HTTP protocol. Audio Codec does not need to be checked, since there is no audio, I just put it in as habit. Note the Address field is the IP address of the same machine (the server in this case), which is 192.168.1.1. This can be a bit confusing.
3) Press Okay twice and your VLC server is up and running serving your desktop to whoever wants to watch (Note: This WILL slow down your server machine considerably).
4) Go to your client machine (192.168.1.2 in our case), run VLC and go to File/Open Network menu option and fill it in as follows. Note that we’re connecting to our server at 192.168.1.1 now.
5) Press okay and you should see the stream from your server now…..DONE!!

Brad over at bradfortner.com has a great article where he delves into the logic (or lack of) behind companies arguing IP with their own costumers. All I have to say is this, if the said company could write a decent driver, I would have had a little sympathy for them. But lets face it, Creative Labs is probably in a tie with ATI for writing the industries worst drivers for as long as I can remember.

The difference I guess is that when one of Creative’s own users started fixing the drivers, and asked other users for donations to support the effort, Creative went after him. When will these guys learn. If the guy was doing such a good job that Creative felt threatened, they should have hired the dude, not sent him a cease and desist letter. That’s pretty sad Creative.

Anyways, I think Brad is way to generous with the reptilian comparison. Reptiles have brains the last time I checked….right???

This happened a while back — almost two weeks ago — and I’ve kinda been sitting on the idea of doing them in Black and White. Well, I finally decided and finished them today. I’m also trying something new with the border and “fancy dancy” copyright text. Enjoy :-)

BTW. If the full size model of the AVRO Arrow that they built is true to scale, that thing must have been HUGE….Absolutely massive for it’s time.

A friend passed this on today (thanks Jeremy). If you use a mic in your day to day businness (or even if you’re an occasional ichat/skype user, you should check this out. RevoLabs have introduced a new line of Wireless microphones that come with RF-Armor. What does that mean, well the next time your GSM phone rings/sync/receives email, your microphone won’t be going all crazy. Plus their Solo mics come in three different types:

• Wearable
• Tabletop Boundry
• XLR adapter for handheld mics

All their mics use a base station that hooks up to your PC or Mac via USB (no driver needed) and show up as a sound device. As a bonus the wearable one also has a audio out so you can wear it around your neck (on in your pocket) and hook up a headset to it as well.
They also have larger 4 channel and 8 channel wireless systems that you can mix and match using different solo mics. The preconfigured systems even come with a 4 or 8 channel Gentner echo cancellation device by polycom. Very nice…..

Yeah baby, If you’re gonna telecine your Super 8 summer trip reels, why not do it using the RED Digital Cinema Camera at glorious (or is it gruesome) 4K. All those scratches and nicks blown up to 4K….Yummm. Well I guess film restorers will be back in business. The rig is a prototype made by Movie Stuff Workprinter XP specifically for the RED camera. The Workprinter’s “trigger out” interfaces directly to the Red’s GPI input to trigger capture in stop motion mode up to 30 frames per second in the Red’s 4K mode). I wonder if they’re gonna do a 16mm version of this rig as well. Now that would be a cheap 16mm telecine :-).

Apples remote desktop service is great and it comes in handy, but what happens when you’re 5000 miles away from your desktop, only to find that remote desktop is turned off. Dooohhhh. Well here is a quick tip to turn the damn thing on and off in a second through a remote ssh connection. To turn on the service, ssh to your machine and issue the following commands:$ cd /Library/Preferences
$ echo -n enabled > com.apple.ScreenSharing.launchdAnd once you’re done, you can turn it off by issuing the following through an ssh session:$ cd /Library/Preferences
$ rm com.apple.ScreenSharing.launchdI’m pretty sure that this only works under Leopard (10.5+), so if you’ve got Tiger you need to look for an alternate way. I don’t have access to a Tiger machine so I can not guarantee that it works or not.

Well the long awaited photoshop express has finally been released. For those of you who don’t know, adobe is finally joining the horde of online photo editing sites, with their own flash creation. Now we’re not talking full blown photoshop CS3 here (not even photoshop 3.0). There are no levels/curves/16-bit/layers/masks or any of the other advanced functions, but for a web application I think it’s great. It even allows you to suck your images across from Facebook, Photobucket and Picasa. So hop on over to photoshop express’s website and sign up for a free account. You will need flash for this (Note: I could not get it to work with flock browser under OSX, but Safari worked flowless).

So after pulling out my (non-existent) hair for the past two days I think I’ve finally figured out how Apple deals with Virtual Web Servers under Leopard. If you go to the Server Admin and look under the Web Service you’ll notice the Sites icon and if you’re like me you assume that since Apple obviously has gone to great lengths to design a unified interface for Admins, that they would give you access to all the basic/intermediate options. NOPE!!!!! Read on and see if you’ve run into any of these problems.

1) First of all, I don’t understand why apple’s webserver (apache) is configured to automagically reroute you to http://www.mysite.com/groups/workgroup when you really just want to get to the index.html in the (so called) document root. Apple assumes that when you type http://www.mysite.com that you really want to go to http://www.mysite.com/groups/workgroup. That is plain dumb. And to make it worst there is no place in the interface to disable (or modify) this. So get out your terminals, we’re gonna do some surgery:

• Go to /etc/apache2/sites folder and find the appropriate .conf file for your main site. If you only have one site configured, it will most likely be “0000_any_80_.conf” or something similar.
• Edit the file using your favourite editor (make sure you sudo, so you can modify the file).
• look for this line toward the end of the file:RedirectMatch temp ^/$ "/groups/workgroup/"
• Comment the line if you want to get back to regular apache behaviour (ie: no redirect), or modify the part in quotes to Redirect you to the groups page for example.
• Save the file and restart apache from server manager….DONE!!!!!

2) And while we are on the subject of obscurity, If you want to have multiple virtual hosts with their own blogs/wikis hosted under their individual virtual hostnames, Apple strikes again by hiding the options and only enabling the workgroup services under the “main” webserver address. Here is how you fix that:

• Make sure your Virtual hosts are working (ie: sitea.domain.com and siteb.domain.com go to two different webpages on the same server). You’ll notice that if you have multiple groups (a and b) then you can not have groupa’s wiki under sitea.domain.com and groupb’s wiki under siteb.domain.com. By default (until you go and manually do the next step described below), all wiki/blog/calendar stuff pretaining to groups is available on the default site (sitea.domain.com in this case).
• So stop web services from Server Admin
• Bring up Directory utility and click on groups and choose your specific group (groupb in our case).
• If you now click the edit button, you’ll notice a server pull down shows up. That’s the secret. Set the server to serverb.domain.com, save, close directory tool and restart the web services and you’ll now have individual group services under different virtual host addresses.

Hope this helps…..The above 2 problems are discussed (not in great detail) under the following two Apple Support Discussions:

1) Always goes to the wiki page
2) Wiki – No group with that name hosted on this server?

This is what happens when I really like something (B&W) and get to have a uninterrupted 5 day holiday (been slacking-off since thursday….hehehe). These shots were taken during the TPMG’s (Toronto Photographers Meetup Group) recent meetup at the Distillery District. Originally in colour, I have to admit that the B&W treatment is more appropriate IMHO. Anyways, comment away……Do you like it B&W (ie: period like)? or Colour (ie: Touristy)? The complete set is here.

So I finally got around to try my hand at Digital B&W — shots taken in colour originally, then converted to B&W — and I have to admit that I’ve really enjoyed it. Not quite the old film experience (I think it might have something to do with the missing odours :-)), but it’s pretty cool nevertheless. Here is a sampling of our Film Noir style shoot from last Thursday night at the studio. You can have a look at the complete set here.

While the world was busy trying to figure out how to sync their palm pilots to Windows 98 (or was it 95) Andrew Tridgell was working on his thesis……Rsync. The endall-beall in the world of syncing. You see, if you’ve ever tried any syncing program before you’ll appreciate the ease with which rsync works. You’ll also see the efficiency of it’s algorithm in dealing with changes/updates, and for that you can thank Andrew. I’m just gonna show you how to use this excellent tool along with ssh (another must have/must use free software utility) to setup automated secure backups between two different platforms.

For the purpose of this article I’m using a PowerMac G5 with a 1TB Firewire disk hanging off it as my backup server. As my client I’m using the departmental research server (yes, forget that it’s a server, in this exercise it’s a CLIENT).

So first we need to make sure we have the tools: ssh and rsync. They are already part of my distribution (SuSE Linux 10.1 on the client and OSX 10.5.1 on the server) so I didn’t have to install anything. You want to make sure that your rsync uses protocol version 2.x.x on both sides. (type: rsync –version on your machines to see the protocol version).

Note: You can also grab RsyncX for older OSX versions and/or cwRsync for windows.

Step 1. Is to remove the interactivity that happens during an ssh session (ie: password prompt). To do this we must generate passphraseless keys that we can initially manually exchange between our machines. So in our case we want to grant access to our client machine — via ssh — from the server. Now here is were things get a bit OS specific. Under OSX there is no root account (atleast not one you can log into) by default. In my setup I want to allow root@server.domain.ca (OSX machine) to have access to root@client.domain.ca (Linux machine), so here is what I had to do.

On the OSX machine (server or machine initiating the rsync session) login as the standard user/admin and issue the following commands:
$ sudo su - (you'll be asked for your password and then be in a root shell....be careful).
# cd ~ (this is just to make sure we're in root's home directory which is /var/root under OSX).
# ssh-keygen -t dsa -b 1024 (do NOT put in a passphrase when prompted....just press Enter).
Generating public/private dsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/var/root/.ssh/id_dsa):
Created directory '/var/root/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /var/root/.ssh/id_dsa.
Your public key has been saved in /var/root/.ssh/id_dsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
03:cc:52:7a:ed:ae:bf:53:48:9c:dd:45:c7:a9:bd:f1 root@server.domain.ca
Make sure you don’t enter a passphrase when prompted (remember we want a automated operation here). If everything goes right you should have two new files in your .ssh directory named id_dsa (your private key….don’t ever give this to anyone) and id_dsa.pub (your public key which we are going to use).

Now you need to transfer the id_dsa.pub key file to your client somehow. I do this just using ssh again. If you want to be totally super secure you can stick it on a usb key and walk it over to your client machine. So still on the server (OSX) machine I do the following (still in roots account, so be careful):
# scp ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub root@client.domain.ca:/root/.ssh/authorized_keys
# ssh client.domain.ca -l root "chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"
So the first command transfers id_dsa.pub from the server and copies it to the root’s .ssh directory on the client (and renames it to authorized_keys). The second command issues a remote chmod command to set the right permissions on the authorized_keys file on the client (Linux box).

Now, to verify, while still logged into root on the server (OSX) try to ssh to your client machine (using root’s account on client). If everything works you should be able to log into root’s account on the client (Linux machine) without a password prompt. If you’re prompted for password, stop here, and redo/recheck your procedure.

Step 2. Pheew…..You made it, that was the hard part….the rest is pretty simple. Now we just need to test to make sure things are running smoothly and once that’s done we can automate everything using a cron job (Step 3.). So lets start our test run. For this I’ve chosen to backup the /etc directory on the server (lots of small files, nothing earth shattering) and my chosen path on the server is /Volumes/TERADISK. This is where OSX mounts my firewire drive (your milage may vary). I’ve created a folder on TERADISK called FULLBACKUP, which I use to have rsync house my backups. So to test issue the following command as root (yes still, so be carefull) on the server:
# /usr/bin/rsync -a -v -z -e ssh "root@client.domain.ca:/etc/" /Volumes/TERADISK/FULLBACKUP/etc
Notice I use /usr/bin to make sure I’m running the kosher version of rsync under OSX Leopard (I have an older rsync in /usr/local/bin that rsyncX installed). Now a word about slashes in rsync. Note that I follow the first /etc with a slash, but not the second occurrence. That’s because I’m telling rsync to grab the files INSIDE /etc on the client (hence the extra / at the end) and sync them to files in /Volumes/TERADISK/FULLBACKUP/etc existing directory on the server (hence the missing / at the end). You can think of a trailing / on a source as meaning “copy the contents of this directory” as opposed to “copy the directory by name”. So hopefully this command worked for you and after a few minutes you have a copy of the /etc directory on the server. If not please stop and review your steps. Do NOT do Step 3. unless Steps 1&2 are verified and working.

Step 3. Well we’ve reached the end. All you have to do now is to use crontab -e command while still logged in as root on the server to add rsync entries for folders you want synced between the client and the server. Note that I do NOT backup absolutely everything off the client, only specific folders (and their subfolders ofcourse). I’m pretty sure that rsync will get confused if you try to sync things like your dev directory from the linux client. In my cron I have the following:
0 4 * * 6 /usr/local/bin/rsyncmanu.sh
Which runs the rsync shell script on the server (as root) every saturday at 4:00 am.

That’s it. Hopefully this has been useful…..

Here is a flickr set, shot today of a beautiful blue bottle.

I bet you didn’t know that Frontrow, Apple’s Media Centre software that ships with every Mac, can actually playback those HD trailers from their site. Well here is a quicktip to enable that functionality:
defaults write com.apple.frontrow EnableHDMovieTrailers TRUE
Once you type this into terminal, start up Frontrow and note that you get a new option under trailers. To disable this functionality issue the following command from a terminal window:
defaults write com.apple.frontrow EnableHDMovieTrailers FALSE

And that’s exactly what it does. A fantastic new product from evernote that offers you the opportunity to offload your brain of all those ideas/clippings/musings. Basically this thing is the kitchen sink of organizers….and it does OCR to boot.

So head over to evernote.com and sign up for an invite, download whatever method of interface you want/need (webbased/OSX/Windows) and start clipping and organizing your life/brain. One of coolest thing about evernote is that you can feed the elephant anything (sound/image/text) and it will make it searchable. In the case of an image for example, you can shoot your buddies business card using your cellphone, send it to your evernote account and it will automagically OCR the card content and make it searchable. Same with handwritten notes, memos, doodles, stickies. All this works in Windows/OSX and on the Web……very nice.

Now if they could add a bit of RSS import/export goodness to it, I think it would make the perfect central hub application for all your social interfaces (blog/twit/flick/wiki/etc….).

As some of you might know I’ve been setting up my OTA (Over The Air) HDTV gear for the past couple of months and learning all about Antenna design, gain, amplification, directionality and such…..Lots of fun/confusing stuff. Well today I came across this article on digitalhome.ca that describes how a bunch of guys got together and using digital modeling improved the original Gray-Hoverman Antenna design. And if that wasn’t enough, they’ve released their design completely under GPL……Bravo. They’ve truly built the Super Antenna and in true spirit of engineering have shared their results/designs. So go grab some coat hangers, set aside 30 minutes of your life and get off the bandwagon and save some money by grabing your HD over the air for FREE….Like it’s supposed to be.

Okay these guys are my new best friends….Head over to cooliris.com and grab your copy of their cooliris previews extension…..trust me you’ll not be disappointed…..makes browsing faster and more fun. You’ll wonder how you ever got by without it.

Just hop on over to piclens.com and grab their Firefox/IE plugins (OSX, WinXP/Vista) and start enjoying your online pictures again. This little gem works with either browser (and pretty much all the derivatives…..ie: Flock, Bonecho, etc.) and will totally knock your socks off. Just install it, go to a random flickr page (or one of the other services they support) and press the little blue play button in the address bar area or on the actuall pictures…..It even supports the little mac remote……Now I have a excuse to buy that mac mini :-)

As promised here are some of the Guitar batch…..more on flickr.

Here is the latest from the weekend shooting extravaganza :-) Up next The Guitar…

Gotta love Steve Ballmer, he’s so clueless, he doesn’t even realize it. This is the same guy who for the longest time slammed Linux and Web technologies, promoted his companies sub par OS as the latest greatest and told us that Web-based apps and the whole web2.0 thing was just a fad. I got 5 words for him…..Dude you missed the boat…..AGAIN.

Here is his latest rant……”Web Developers, Web Developers, Web Developers…”. This is pretty sad.