If you try to install Ubuntu 10.10 under parallels desktop 6.0 on OSX — atleast as of the writing of this article — you’ll soon discover that although your entire installation is done in a high (eg: 1920×1080) resolution, as soon as the install is done and you reboot, your VM is stuck at 1024×768. You can install the parallel tools using the menu option and it still won’t help — although it helps with 3D (ie: compiz). Under Gnomes System/Preferences/Monitors the highest resolution available is 1024×768 . After searching around the net for the past week or so and trying just about every remedy — which did not work — I was about to give up, then I found the magic command that “makes it go” .

I’ve now got Ubuntu 10.10 running with PT/compiz under parallels 6.0 @ 1920×1080. No problem. Normally if you go inside ~/.config/ directory (.config folder under your home directory) you’ll notice that there is no “monitors.xml” file in there. That’s the per user X config file that gets the ball rolling. Generating the file is really easy. Open a teminal and issue the following command:

xrandr

This will generate (hopefully) the following output:

Note that 1024×768 is the default. Now if you go inside ~/.config/ directory you’ll find a “monitors.xml” file (below). Once you’ve got this file you can go to System/Preferences/Monitors and choose the higher resolution options (eg:1920×1080). The xrandr command should generate the file for you. If it doesn’t (not sure why), here is my version for parallel 6.0. I think it’s pretty generic so you should be able to cut and paste the content:

<monitors version="1">
  <configuration>
      <clone>no</clone>
      <output name="default">
          <vendor>???</vendor>
          <product>0x0000</product>
          <serial>0x00000000</serial>
          <width>1920</width>
          <height>1200</height>
          <rate>60</rate>
          <x>0</x>
          <y>0</y>
          <rotation>normal</rotation>
          <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
          <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
          <primary>no</primary>
      </output>
  </configuration>
</monitors>

If you’ve recently installed Ubuntu 10.10 and have installed Nvidia and/or ATI drivers — or installed ubuntu under emulation — you’ll end up with a (butt) ugly splash screen. In my case under parallel 6.0 I ended up with a text boot screen that just read “Ubuntu 10.10″……Ughhh. Here is a quick tutorial on how to get a nice splash restored. This procedure also works in 10.04. Keep in mind that I’m doing everything with 1280×1024 screen size. your mileage might vary (ie: you might want 1024×768). You’ll need to get a terminal session opened for this:

• Get the nice splash screen installed

  sudo apt-get install v86d

• Edit your grub config file and add the following

  sudo vi /etc/default/grub

• Look for this line:

  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

• and replace it with this (note: 1280×1024 screen res…..your mileage might vary):

  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x1024-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap"

• Still in the same file look for this line:

  #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

• and replace it with this (note: 1280×1024 screen res…..your mileage might vary):

  GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x1024

Your /etc/default/grub file should look like this once you’re done (partial screenshot):

• Save the file and issue the following command to start editing /etc/initramfs-tools/modules file:

  sudo vi /etc/initramfs-tools/modules

• The file should be mostly commented out. At the end of the file insert the following line (note: 1280×1024 screen res…..your mileage might vary):

  uvesafb mode_option=1280x1024-24 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap

Your /etc/initramfs-tools/modules file should look like this once you’re done:

• Save the file and issue the following command:

  echo FRAMEBUFFER=y | sudo tee /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash

• Finally issue the following two command to update grub:

  sudo update-grub2

  sudo update-initramfs -u

Reboot and Enjoy

In this guide I’ll show you how to stream live HDV/DV video to your iphone using a linux box (Ubuntu 9.10) with firewire input running vlc/ffmpeg and a Imac with OSX 10.6.2 running mediastreamsegmenter and apache2.

Start out with the iPhone streaming media overview. Without understanding this document you’ll have a hard time getting things working.

First things first, you need to have a working Ubuntu 9.10 machine. I’m using a small footprint 2.4Ghz Core2Duo machine with PCI firewire 400 card in it. For video input I’m using a Canon HV30 set to HDV mode (1080i/60) connected via firewire.

Next you need to follow the instructions on this page (steps 0-5) to get a working ffmpeg with x264 and aac encoding. Without this working you’re not going anywhere….sorry. If you’re trying this on a different Ubuntu installation follow the other links to get a working ffmpeg setup.

Then install vlc using “sudo apt-get install vlc“. I used vlc as my encoder frontend as I understand it better than ffmpeg. You can use just straight ffmpeg as well if you can figure out how to get it to encode the live HDV stream over firewire.

You’ll also need dvgrab utility. Install it using “sudo apt-get install dvgrab“.

Now we want to make sure the internal firewire module is working so type this command and see if you get a vlc window with the camera output in it (make sure you turn the camera ON and hook it up first).
sudo dvgrab -f hdv -noavc -nostop -|vlc -
You have to use sudo under ubuntu to get proper access to the firewire device. The above command runs dvgrab with hdv format and makes sure that 1394 AV/Device control is turned off (this way you can be in Camera mode and get a live feed). The nostop switch prevents dvgrab from sending stop commands to the camera everytime you stop it via Ctrl-C, which I though was a good thing. The last dash forces dvgrab to output to stdout, which we’ll then pipe into vlc (the dash for vlc tells it to use stdin as input).

Next we need to create a media stream out of our linux box and ship it over UDP to the Imac. The vlc command below gets the job done. Remember you’re sudo’ing and need to provide the password after you enter the command.
sudo dvgrab -f hdv -noavc -nostop -|vlc - --sout '#transcode{vcodec=h264,vb=256,venc=x264{aud,profile=baseline,level=30,keyint=30,bframes=0,ref=1,nocabac},acodec=mp4a,ab=64,scale=0.25,deinterlace,width=320,height=240}:duplicate{dst=std{access=udp,mux=ts,dst=192.168.1.97:1234}}'
The IP address toward the end of the command is the IP of the Imac machine receiving the stream. Port 1234 is arbitrary. The stream is comprised of h.264 video @ 256K and AAC audio @ 64K. Those elementary streams are then packaged in mpeg2 transport stream before being shipped to the Imac. This is the standard way of doing HTML5 video (from what I understand).

So now we can go over to the mac and see if we receive the video stream. For that just run VLC for OSX and open UDP network port on port 1234 (udp://). If things are working nicely you should see a 320×240 video from you HDV camera on the Imac.

Now that we have the video on the mac, we need to use the “mediastreamsegmenter” command line tool to create HTML5 video stream out of it. mediastreamsegmenter listens on a UDP port for incoming transport stream chops it (by default) into 10 sec. “mini” transport stream files and writes these mini files to wherever you tell it. This location is important since it needs to be accessible to your webserver. Remember, at the end of the chain (day), the webserver is doing all the heavy lifting of delivering the mini transport stream files to your iphone. mediastreamsegmenter also produces a file of type .m3u8
which is basically a live updated playlist.

Something you might not know is that apple ships standard OSX with apache builtin. All you have to do is use the following command to get it started.
apachectl start
Now point your browser on the mac to localhost and see if it loads a page. Now that apache is working we need to modify it so it knows how to deal with .ts and .m3u8 files. This involves adding a couple of lines to /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
AddType application/x-mpegURL .m3u8
AddType video/MP2T .ts
and /etc/apache2/mime.types
.m3u8 application/x-mpegURL
.ts video/MP2T
Next we need to restart apache
apachectl restart
By default OSX apache is setup to load it’s documents from /Library/WebServer/Documents, so I created a directory called “stream” to contain the media stuff (.ts files and .m3u8 file) and put the following into the index.html file in /Library/WebServer/Documents.
<html>
<head>
<title>Video Test</title>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=320; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/>
</head>
<body style="background-color:#FFFFFF; ">
<center>
<video width='320' height='240' src="prog_index.m3u8" controls autoplay> </video>
</center>
</body>
</html>
Now that we’ve got all the prep done on the mac, we issue the following command from terminal window to get the mediastreamsegmenter going (details can be found by using man mediastreamsegmenter).
mediastreamsegmenter -b http://192.168.1.97/stream -f /Library/WebServer/Documents/stream 192.168.1.64:1234
Here -b specifies the base of the URL that will be encoded into the .m3u8 file (this is the IP address of your Imac, stream is the folder in /Library/WebServer/Documents/ where the mini .ts files and the .m3u8 file are). The -f switch specifies the output directory for the mini .ts files and the .m3u8 file. and the last IP address:port is from your Linux box.

Now you should be able to open up your browser on your iphone/ipod touch and punch in http://192.168.1.97 (assuming the Imac is reachable from your phone) and see the streaming video (You might have to turn on “Plugins” feature under settings/safari on your device. Mine was turned off and drove me crazy until I figured it out). If Plugins is turned off, the index.html page will load, but no video.

Hopefully there is enough meat here to get you guys started……btw. I hear the following command (or variations of) can be used on linux side (instead of vlc). I haven’t tried it and can’t confirm if it works.
ffmpeg -i <in file> -f mpegts -acodec libmp3lame -ar 48000 -ab 64k -s 320×240 -vcodec libx264 -b 96k -flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti4×4+partp8×8+partb8×8 -subq 5 -trellis 1 -refs 1 -coder 0 -me_range 16 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -bt 200k -maxrate 96k -bufsize 96k -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -qcomp 0.6 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -level 30 -aspect 320:240 -g 30 -async 2 <output file>

Some excellent information can be found on Carson McDonald’s blog:

• iPhone HTTP Streaming with FFMpeg and an Open Source Segmenter
• iPhone Windowed HTTP Live Streaming Using Amazon S3 and Cloudfront Proof of Concept
• HTTP Live Video Stream Segmenter and Distributor

For those of you who don’t know OpenShot Video Editor(TM) is an open-source program that creates, modifies, and edits video files. OpenShot provides extensive editing and compositing features, and has been designed as a practical tool for working with high-definition video including HDV and AVCHD.

Jonathan Thomas and crew have reached their 1.0 milestone (congrats ). The program is rock solid and is running beautifully on my Ubuntu 9.10 installation.

OpenShot’s Features include:

• Support for many video, audio, and image formats (based on FFmpeg)
• Gnome integration (drag and drop support)
• Multiple tracks
• Clip resizing, trimming, snapping, and cutting
• Video transitions with real-time previews
• Compositing, image overlays, watermarks
• Title templates, title creation
• SVG friendly, to create and include titles and credits
• Scrolling motion picture credits
• Solid color clips (including alpha compositing)
• Support for Rotoscoping / Image sequences
• Drag and drop timeline
• Frame stepping, key-mappings: J,K, and L keys
• Video encoding (based on FFmpeg)
• Key Frame animation
• Digital zooming of video clips
• Speed changes on clips (slow motion etc)
• Custom transition lumas and masks
• Re-sizing of clips (frame size)
• Audio mixing and editing
• Presets for key frame animations and layout
• Ken Burns effect (making video by panning over an image)
• Digital video effects, including brightness, gamma, hue, greyscale, chroma key (bluescreen/greenscreen), and over 20 other video effects.

I recently upgraded netbook using the distribution upgrade and didn’t like the results, so I reinstalled Ubuntu Notebook Remix 9.10 Karmic Koala. Well, I’m sorry but I don’t think this Koala was ready for release. First there was the issue of where the heck are all the beloved Ubuntu tools. Gone is the Add/Remove software progy (you have to install manually), now we have Ubuntu Software Centre. Gone is being able to check off multiple packages for batch install, USC installs apps one at a time (which takes two mouse clicks per app).

To top it off — atleast in UNR 9.10 — there is no install button once you click on the arrow beside the packages. No, it’s not a problem with root/admin, I tried running it as root and same thing, NO INSTALL BUTTON on the install screen. Anyways it turns out once you get past the gargantuan Windows XP like update (125 updates) using the following two commands, the Ubuntu Software Centre magically comes back to life and gives you the “oh so important” install button. Come on Ubuntu…..I thought you were friendly. This Koala Bites HARD!!! . So the magic commands are….yeah you guessed it:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

BTW. If at some point the upgrade asks to replace /etc/defaults/grub say “yes” and go with the newer version. It does not harm the system.

I’ve been using Synergy for about 3 years now and never really thought about writing about it. Tonight I came across Synergy+ which is a maintenance fork of the original Synergy. So I thought about writing a small note about it since it’s now maintained again.

Synergy+ (synergy-plus) lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, without special hardware. All you need is a LAN connection. It’s intended for users with multiple computers, where each system uses its own display. It’s a little like having a 2nd or a 3rd desktop. It’s not a KVM or VNC tool, but it does achieve similar results (but with added convenience). No need to press any buttons when you want to change desktops, and your keyboard input goes to the same screen that your mouse cursor is on.

Main features:

• Move your mouse easily between computers
• Requires nothing other than existing ethernet
• Copy and paste between your computers
• No need to press any buttons (unlike KVM)
• You can still use multiple monitors on the same computer
• By using the ScrLock (or “Scroll Lock”) key you can prevent switching from one monitor to another, which is useful for gaming and other full screen applications.

So head over to Synergy+’s home over at Google Code and grab your copy. Synergy+ is free open source software.

Downloaded and installed 9.10 yesterday and what do you know, someone decided to take away Ctrl-Alt-Backspace — or what I call “Three Finger Salute for Linux”. Whhhaaattt!!!!

Okay if you know about gksudo, fine. I just found out about it a little while back when I was trying to run ethereal. You see under Ubuntu (and a lot of other Linux distros) the concept of root user has been removed. There is no root (well there is, but you can’t access it), unless you specifically modify your system to activate it. That’s fine (most of the time), since you can use sudo to accomplish almost anything as the administrator. One thing that doesn’t work properly are the graphical applications that need root access. So here is where gksudo comes to rescue. In the case of ethereal I would issue the following command to get it to prompt me for sudo and run as root user:
gksudo ethereal
So next time you get tempted to open up that root account on your Ubuntu install, don’t, use gksudo and get those gui apps running as root.

I love Ubuntu, but there is one thing that really bugs the hell out of me. The default configured editor in Ubuntu is nano, a Pico clone. I hate Pico, therefor I hate nano . So how would you go about fixing this and changing the default editor to vi (or vim):

1. Issue the following command: sudo update-alternatives --config editor
2. Enter the superuser password when prompted.
3. At the following screen choose the number beside the editor you want as default or alternatively just press Enter to keep the default the same.

   There are 3 alternatives which provide `editor'.
   
     Selection    Alternative-----------------------------------------------          1    /usr/bin/vim.tiny          2    /bin/ed*+        3    /bin/nano
   
   Press enter to keep the default[*], or type selection number: 1Using '/usr/bin/vim.tiny' to provide 'editor'.

That’s it…..Have fun.

Title says it all…..head over to TechPosters (kinda slow right now) and snag your favourite cheat sheet/reference card. There are also more of this kinda stuff over at Cheat-Sheets.org as well.

Yep, those crazy open source hackers over at dvinfo.net have done it again. You thought the RED camera brought about a revolution in dcinema, well, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Apertus is using the Elphel 353, free software and open hardware camera. The Elphel Camera which this entire project is based on is basically an excellent security camera that can do some real magic. The camera uses an Aptina CMOS bayer-pattern sensor with an optical format of 1/2.5″ (5.70mm x 4.28mm) and a native resolution of 2592×1944 (5 Megapixels). It features a 12 bit ADC and supports: region of interest, on-chip binning and decimation. Aptina claims that the chip has 70db of dynamic range at full resolution and 76db when using 2×2 binning. The camera has a standard C-mount but ships with an adapter ring that allows to mount CS-lenses as well.

The recording resolution can be freely adjusted to anything starting from 16×16 to 2592×1944 in 16 pixel steps. This includes Apertus AMAX (2224×1251), Apertus CIMAX (2592×1120), 2K (2048 × 1536), Full HD (1920×1080), HD (1280×720) and of course all lower resolution SD formats like DV PAL, DV NTSC, etc.

The lower the resolution the higher the maximal possible framerate. At the full sensor size (5 million pixels or 5 Megapixels) the maximal frame rate is 10 fps in normal color mode and 15 fps in JP4 RAW mode. JP4 achieves higher framerates in general as some camera internal calculations are skipped and need to be applied later in postproduction (like debayering/demosaicing).

The RAW recording mode in Apertus is called JP4 RAW. Because certain in-camera compression steps can be skipped JP4 RAW allows higher recording speed resulting in more fps. JP4 RAW requires postprocessing (DNG Converter) but in return offers the highest possible image quality.

The following connectors are available on the camera body:

• SATA: Can be used to connect any external SATA device that is supported under Linux (external harddrives, raids, etc.)
• Ethernet: 100MBit Network with POE (48V)
• USB: USB 1.1 with 5V power supply
• IDE: Used to connect internal HDD
• RS232: Access to Console and debug output

The camera also supports the following recording media:

• Optional internal IDE 1.8″ HDD
• 2 internal CF Card Slots
• external SATA connector to connect any SATA device (Linux support required)

And if that’s not enough for you there is a extra bonus that comes from the ability of the camera to shoot Full HD in portrait (upright) mode. Upright screens are basically 1080p screens mounted sideways (portrait mode). This type of mounting is becoming increasingly more popular for events, exhibitions and advertising. If you want to spare yourself the hassle of building a right to mount the camera 90 degrees rotated you can whip out your Apertus rig and just start recording. This will give you a 1088×1020 image that’s ready for portrait playback.

So after yesterdays rant, I went back and figured out how to install the Cacti monitoring software (OSS, Free) onto a Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope” Desktop installation. This guide uses packages only, no compiling, no Makefiles or anything like that…..You should be able to just follow this and get a fully functioning Cacti installation in about 30 minutes. Here are the steps:

1. install ubuntu 9.04 (“Jaunty Jackalope“) Desktop Edition on your machine
2. Login, open a Shell window and install ubuntu LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) server stack on your machine
   “sudo tasksel install lamp-server”.
   Note: Make sure you remember the password for “root” user in mysql Database, write it down somewhere, we will need it later on.
3. Get a superuser shell started since it will make for less typing.
   “sudo -i”
   followed by your password. Be carefull from now on, you’re ROOT and can literally destroy your system if you issue the wrong command. Follow along by typing the commands in the rest of this document and answering the prompts where appropriate.
4. Issue:
   “apt-get install rrdtool snmp php5-snmp php5 php5-gd”
   This will get all of the prereqs installed on your system. Answer “yes” when prompted for additional packages. 
5. Issue:
   “apt-get install cacti-cactid”
   This will get cacti and cacti server installed. Again answer “yes” when prompted for additional packages.
6. You’ll be presented with a bunch of ANSI screens that ask for information or give you choices to configure “libphp-adodb” package. Follow as per below:
• Click “Okay” on php.ini update path (screen 1).
• Choose “Apache 2″ from the pull down on next screen (screen 2).
• Click “Okay” on cacti and spine configuration screen (screen 3).
• At this point some config scripts will run and you’ll see a bunch on jiberish on the screen. Let it go, don’t touch nothing.
• Click “yes” on the dbconfig-common screen and provide the password from step 2. (above) for the mysql “root” user (screen 4).
• Now you’re prompted to choose a password for a new mysql user known as “cacti”. I used the same password as “root” user since my system is single user only. You will need to confirm the password on the next screen (screen 5,6).
• Almost there……..
7. Now the hard part is over. Start your browser and point it at http://localhost/cacti — assuming you’re running the browser on the cacti machine — or the appropriate IP address instead of localhost.
8. Click “Next” on the first screen (might want to read it too).
9. Select “New Install” on screen 2 and Click “Next”
10. On the next screen (Path Check screen) make sure everything is found and make 100% sure to select “RRDTool 1.2.x” from the RRDTool utility version pull down. Click “Finish” when you’re done.
11. You’ll see the login screen. Use Username “admin” and Password “admin” to login. On the next screen you’re forced to change the password for user admin. This is a good thing. Change the password to something complicated and easy to remember (does that exist?). Click “Save”.
12. Make sure under Configuration Settings/Paths that “Spine Poller file path” is correctly set to “/usr/sbin/spine”, and its found.
13. Make sure under Configuration Settings/Poller you select “Poller type” and set it to “spine” and Click “Save”. You’re done……Please RTFM for more Cacti info (or come back here and you might potentially find another episode of my ramblings). Have Fun!!

I was looking for a fast small (read: mini-ITX) mobo that had enough power to drive 1080P monitor/panel and I came across Zotac IonITX-A-U board. According to manufacturer’s website:

The mini-ITX form factor ZOTAC® ION combines a high-performance NVIDIA® ION graphics processor with a power-efficient Intel® Atom processor for the ultimate eco-friendly platform that has no troubles handling regular web browsing, e-mail, & productivity and HD video playback tasks.

NVIDIA® PureVideo HD technology harnesses the power of the ION’s 16 high-speed stream processors for high-definition Blu-ray playback capabilities. PureVideo HD technology decodes HD video formats and enhances standard-definition videos with the ION GPU for flawless HD and superior SD video playback.

Sounds and looks very nice and capable. I guess I’d have to pick one up and give it a whirl. Here are the quick tech specs:

• Onboard Video: GeForce 9400M
• Onboard Audio: 5.1
• Model: IONITX-A
• CPU Socket: 441-ball
• FSB: 533 MHz
• Dimensions: 6.7″ x 6.7″
• Chipset: MCP7A-ION
• Memory Type: DDR2 667/800
• Package Contents: 3 SATA cable 1 SATA power cable 1 WiFi antenna 1 WiFi bracket
• Memory Slots: 2×240pin
• SATA: 3 + 1 eSATA
• PCI Express x1: 1 (mini)
• Form Factor: Mini ITX
• Video Ports: D-Sub + DVI + HDMI
• USB: 10 (6 on back panel, 4 via pin header)
• Power Connector: 24 Pin – 90 Watt PSU included
• PS/2: 1
• RAID: 0/1/0+1

mini-itx.com has a nice review and sells the board aswell.

The USB-powered Beagle Board is a low-cost, fan-less single board computer utilizing Texas Instruments’ OMAP3530 application processor that unleashes laptop-like performance and expansion without the bulk, expense, or noise of typical desktop machines.

Beagle Board is based on an OMAP3530 application processor featuring an ARM® Cortex™-A8 running at up to 600MHz and delivering over 1,200 Dhrystone MIPS of performance via superscalar operation with highly accurate branch prediction and 256KB of L2 cache. Focal to Beagle Board experience is the high-speed USB 2.0 on-the-go (OTG) port that can be utilized to provide power to the board or to deliver highly flexible expansion. Standard PC peripherals can be connected to Beagle Board using the USB with a mini-A to standard-A cable adapter, DVI-D using an HDMI to DVI-D adapter, or through the MMC/SD/SDIO connector enabling a complete desktop experience. The picture below should give you a good idea of it’s size beside the tiny Pico Projector.

Hardware Specifications are as follows:

• OMAP3530 applications processor featuring the ARM® Cortex™-A8
• 128MB low-power DDR RAM
• 256MB NAND flash
• USB 2.0 high-speed on-the-go port
• DVI-D output
• NTSC/PAL TV via S-Video output
• 6-in-one 8-bit MMC+/SD/SDIO connection
• Stereo audio in/output
• JTAG header
• I2S, I2S, SPI, MMC/SD expansion header
• Power via USB or alternate jack

Looks very nice and complete, a good alternative to Gumstix Avero stuff we covered earlier . And did I mention it’s only $149. Perfect for your next project.

Not too sure, but the Zoom OMAP34x-II Mobile Development Platform looks too “finished/flashy” to be a Mobile Development Platform (MDP). I guess time will tell……For now we can all drool over the pics….and btw, if you have $1150, you can beat the crowd and own one today.

Out of the box features of the Zoom OMAP34x-II MDP :

• 4.1″ WVGA multi-touch display with a QWERTY keypad in a landscape, handheld form factor
• High performance OMAP3430 applications processor that supports up to 720p HD video encode/decode
• Support for popular leading mobile operating systems, including Android Mobile Platform, Linux, LiMo, Symbian OS and Microsoft(r) Windows(r) Mobile
• Wireless connectivity technology from TI, including WiLinkTM 6.0 (WL1271), a single chip with Wi-Fi(r), Bluetooth(r) and FM functionality; and NaviLinkTM GPS functionality
• 8-megapixel camera sensor
• Optional 3G modem solution, as well as flexibility to support any third party modem through an extension card
• An optional DLP Pico projection module will be available, taking mobile content from “tiny screen” viewing to a shareable “big screen” format

• Resolution: 0.17-inch HVGA (320×480 device creating a 640×480 projection)
• Brightness: 7 lumens
• Contrast ratio: 1000:1
• Throw ratio: 1.89
• Processor: MSP430 microcontroller with download port
• Light source: Solid-state 3 LED
• Video input: DVI-D 888RGB, VGA 60 Hz
• Dimensions: 44.8 x 67.4 x 14.2 mm3

Wow, this little guy is cool. Check out Surveyor Corporation’s Open Source Wireless Mobile Robot . Very neat little package for just $475. While there, you might also want to check out YARB 1.0 (Yet Another Robotic Blimp) robot, also pretty neat. Here is a bit of a description according to their site:

Designed for research, education, and exploration, Surveyor’s SRV-1 internet-controlled robot integrates a 1000MIPS 500MHz Analog Devices Blackfin BF537 processor, a digital video camera with resolution from 160×128 to 1280×1024 pixels, laser pointer ranging, and WLAN 802.11b/g networking on a quad-motor tracked mobile robotic base.

Operating as a remotely-controlled webcam or a self-navigating autonomous robot, the SRV-1 can run onboard interpreted C programs or user-modified firmware, or be remotely managed from a Windows, Mac OS/X or Linux base station with Python or Java-based console software. The Java-based console software includes a built-in web server to monitor and control the SRV-1 via a web browser from anywhere in the world, as well as archive video feeds on demand or on a scheduled basis. Additional software support for the SRV-1 is also available by way of Microsoft Robotics Studio, Cyberbotic’s Webots, and RoboRealm machine vision software.

Features

• Open Source design with full access to source code (GPL) and schematics
• Robot is fully programmable for autonomous operation
• Extensive software support through 3rd party applications
• Teleoperate mode to drive robot around via console software or remotely via web browser
• Host software has built-in web server and video archiving
• Robot can run programs written in interpreted C and stored in onboard Flash
• Wireless remote control or viewing up to 100m indoors and 1000m outdoors (line of sight)
• Robot can be controlled from a terminal/console for easy testing
• Linux 2.6 support as well as “bare metal” programming with GNU bfin-elf-gcc

Hardware

• Processor: 1000mips 500MHz Analog Devices Blackfin BF537, 32MB SDRAM, 4MB Flash, JTAG
• Camera: Omnivision OV9655 1.3 megapixel 160×128 to 1280×1024 resolution
• Robot Radio: Lantronix Matchport 802.11b/g WiFi
• Range: 100m indoors, 1000m line-of-site
• Sensors: 2 laser pointers for ranging
• Drive: Tank-style treads with differential drive via four precision DC gearmotors (100:1 gear reduction)
• Speed: 20cm – 40cm per second (approx 1 foot/sec or .5 mile/hour)
• Chassis: Machined Aluminum
• Dimensions: 120mm long x 100mm wide x 80mm tall (5″ x 4″ x 3″)
• Weight: 360gm (12oz)
• Power: 7.4V 2000mAH Li-poly battery pack – 4+ hours per charge
• Charger: 100-240VAC 50/60Hz (US plug)

Software

• Robot Firmware: easily updated, written in C language under GPL Open Source, compiled with GNU bfin-elf-gcc and bfin-uclinux-gcc toolchains
• Onboard User Programming: interpreter for C language with special robot-specific commands are provided for running user programs from onboard Flash memory
• Development Tools: GNU toolchains via http://blackfin.uclinux.org
• Console Software: Java based application, runs on Windows, MAC, Linux. WebcamSat web server module built into console software, allows multiple simultaneous remote viewers via Internet
• Robot Control Protocol: Published here. Easily used from other applications
• Third-party Software Support:
• RoboRealm – http://www.roborealm.com/help/Surveyor_SRV1.php – The SRV-1 can now be directly controlled from RoboRealm, a very popular Windows-based machine vision software package for robots. The RoboRealm extensions for SRV-1 allow creation of scripts that combine image processing on live video feeds from the robot, e.g. color filtering, blob detection/tracking, edge detection/outlining and feature extraction, with decision processing and robot motion control, making it easy to create behaviors such as object location and tracking, obstacle avoidance, motion detection, notification, etc, with a web interface, and control can be scripted from C/C++, Python, Java, C#, Lisp, Visual Basic, WScript and COM through the RoboRealm API.
• Microsoft Robotics Studio – http://www.surveyor.com/MSRS.html – Drivers for the SRV-1 in Microsoft Robotics Studio are now available. MSRS is a Windows-based environment for academic, hobbyist and commercial developers to create robotics applications across a wide variety of hardware. Key features and benefits include: end-to-end robotics development platform, lightweight services-oriented runtime, and a scalable / extensible platform.

Yeah, now I know what I’ll be doing with my next 500 bucks .

 Yep, you can do it now…..The open source hacker community GizmoForYou is shipping a Linux hardware/software kit for building a modular touchscreen smartphone. Using the OMAP35x-based Gumstix Overo Earth single-board computer (SBC), the Flow phone offers numerous customization modules including GPS, 3.5G cellular, Bluetooth, WiFi, and a camera. At around $1300 for the complete kitchen sink version, it’s not exactly cheap, but since they offer multiple choices for each component, you can pick and choose what you like to have inside your smartphone. Really neat stuff.

For those of you who are not tuned into Gumstix, the Overo line is a new line of Computer-on-Module devices designed by Gumstix based on TI’s OMAP Processor. Overo Earth comes with  the following specs:

Processor: OMAP 3503 Application Processor with ARM Cortex-A8 CPU
Clock(MHz): 600 MHz
Performance: Up to 1200 Dhrystone MIPS
Memory: 256MB RAM , 256MB Flash
Features:

• Pin-out compatible with future OMAP 35x-based Overo motherboards
• on-board microSD card slot
• I2C, PWM lines (6), A/D (6), 1-wire, UART, SPI, Camera in, Extra MMC lines.
• Headset, Microphone, backup battery,
• USB OTG signals, USB HS Host

Connections:

• (2) 70-pin AVX connectors
• (1) 27-pin flex ribbon connector

Size: 17mm x 58mm x 4.2mm (0.67 in. x 2.28 in. 0.16 in.)
Expansion: Expansion boards for Overo motherboards. Or, custom design from open specifications.

The core of the Flow phone is the Flow motherboard, which is designed to integrate the separately available Overo Earth module. You can also use the more expensive Overo Water, Air or Fire modules. Other modules attach to the motherboard, including a 3.7-inch 640 x 480 Sharp LS037V7DW01 touchscreen LCD and Flow Sharp LCD module.

Connectivity modules include GPS, USB, and a choice between a plain GSM cellular module and a HSDPA-ready 3.5G/GPS/GSM/GPRS module. (WiFi and Bluetooth are already supplied by the Overo SBC.) Additional options include a 1GB MicroSD card, camera, power supply, battery, and enclosure, with various options available on several of the modules. Flow motherboard features include:

• 2 x 70 pin connectors for the Overo module from Gumstix
• 80-pin connector for the GSM, GPS, and 3G modules
• Stereo amplifiers
• 2 x speakers and GSM audio amplifier for speakers
• Microphone and GSM preamp for Mic
• PIC16LF877A UI Init (with Bootloader preloaded)
• 2 x general-purpose buttons linked to the UI Unit
• Orientation sensor
• Light sensor
• Level translation for GSM serial connections
• 3G USB HS power supply
• Luxeon 1W LED for the camera flash features
• Dual SIM/MicroSD slot (experimental)
• Camera connector and camera power management
• Power management circuits fully controllable by the UI unit
• Additional pins for connecting external power sources
• Dimensions — 3.0 x 2.6 inches (76 x 65mm)
• Operating system — Linux

GizmoForYou does not say much about software, but there are a growing number of Linux development platforms supporting the Overo Earth and OMAP35x platforms, and according to a project member, the group is working on an Android implementation.

This is something that people who deal with OSX and Linux come across everyday. Yes you can format your USB stick or removable HD using FAT32. The problem is that FAT32 does not support large sized files which can cause problems. So how do you solve this…..Easy. Attach the Journalized HFS+ disk to your MAC and startup disk utility. Inside disk utility find the disk in question and click on the partition(s) while holding down the “ALT” key. Keep holding the key down and go to the File menu and choose “Disable Journaling” (command-J). Eject the disk, move it over to your linux machine and hook it up. Linux can now read and write to the disk. Once you’re done, move the disk back to the apple machine and after selecting it in disk utility click on “Enable Journaling” button. Done.

This used to be a pain in the butt. Lots of manual apt-get lines and config edits to get it to work. Weŕe talking about installing the LAMP stack onto a preexisting Ubuntu Desktop Edition installation. I used to do this backwards in the old days by installing the Server edition first (with LAMP) and then getting the graphical desktop goodies installed on top of that. That method still works, but I found out that LAMP stack install on a Desktop edition is a simple one command affair. As of the 7.04 release, the Ubuntu base system includes Tasksel. You can install LAMP using tasksel.
sudo tasksel install lamp-server

I came across this problem this morning, while writing the newly downloaded moblin USB image file. The concept is straight forward, plugin a 1GB+ USB stick into a functioning Linux or Windows box, make sure the stick is not mounted and use dd to write the disk image to the stick. Under OSX however the instructions for unmounting are slightly different, so here are the quick steps:

1. Download the desired .img file
2. Open a Terminal (under Utilities)
3. Run diskutil list to get the current list of devices
4. Insert your flash media
5. Run diskutil list again and determine the device node assigned to your flash media (e.g. /dev/disk2)
6. Run diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN (replace N with the disk number from the last command; in the previous example, N would be 2)
7. Execute sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded.img of=/dev/diskN bs=1m (replace /path/to/downloaded.img with the path where the image file is located.
8. Run diskutil eject /dev/diskN and remove your flash media when the command completes

That should do it…..