Linux.com has an article that explains how to convert any video file to DVD format using dvdauthor and mplayer, which will make those videos viewable on your T.V. using DVD players.
Archive for April, 2006
Convert any video file to DVD with open source tools
Posted 28 Apr 2006 — by Arun
Category Technology
Category Technology
Google calendar notifier for Firefox
Posted 27 Apr 2006 — by Arun
Category Announcement, Technology
Category Announcement, Technology
If you are using Google Calendar, then Google Calendar Notifier extension will help you. This is still in development, so you might encouter some bugs.
Explorer Destroyer
Posted 26 Apr 2006 — by Arun
Category News
Category News
Explorer Destroyer, a site that helps website owners to promote Firefox among their site visitors and earn $1 from Google for each user they refer. i.e. Google will give you $1 for each visitor who downloads Firefox through the link provided. You should sign up for Google Adsense program to get the money. It’s a good move by Google.
Kill Bill’s Browser gives you 13 good reason why you should kill IE and switch to Firefox. I tried installing IE 7 beta 2 and it was a pain. You can’t install it right away if you have IE 7 beta 2 preview. You have to uninstall it. Uninstalling is another painful process and after uninstall and install you have to reboot the system which is another pain in the back. I finally managed to uninstall beta 2 preview and install beta 2 and it took me more than 15 minutes. It would take only couple of minutes if it was Firefox. Another reason why you should move away from IE. The initial download file is 11+ MB and then it downloads more while installing. What a bloated browser.
Internet Explorer addons site
Posted 25 Apr 2006 — by Arun
Category Announcement
Category Announcement
IE team has created an add-ons site for Internet Explorer. It’s similar to Mozilla Addons site (copied the idea from there?). While the Mozilla extensions are completely free, you have to pay for most of the addon for IE. Who wants to pay for a buggy browser and who knows how many security problems these addons will create?
Oracle 10g Express Edition installation on Ubuntu
Posted 25 Apr 2006 — by Arun
Category Oracle, Technology, Ubuntu
Category Oracle, Technology, Ubuntu
I successfully installed Oracle 10g Express Edition on Ubuntu yesterday. I have listed the steps I followed to install this. It’s pretty simple. The download took around 25 mins and installation took less than 5 minutes on my dual core laptop.
Steps to install:
- sudo apt-get install gcc make binutils lesstif2 libc6 libc6-dev rpm libmotif3 libaio libstdc++5
- sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list and add this line at the end. deb http://oss.oracle.com/debian unstable main non-free
- sudo apt-get update
- If you get the error “W: GPG error: http://oss.oracle.com unstable Release: The following signatures couldn’t be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 2E2BCDBCB38A8516″ then do steps 5 to 7
- wget http://oss.oracle.com/el4/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle press enter
- sudo apt-key add RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle press enter
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get install oracle-xe
- After the installation is done, issue this command /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure. Keep pressing ENTER to take the default. Select yes for booting when Ubuntu boots (if you want) else select no. It’ll take sometime for the system to configure the database. Wait till it’s done.
You are done. You’ll see a menu Oracle Database 10g Express Edition under Applications (Kubuntu screenshot – Similar for Ubuntu. I did it in Ubuntu, but I didn’t take the screenshot). I’m now happy that I need not boot into Windows to use Oracle. I don’t use Windows except for video conferencing. Video conferencing is still shaky in Linux.
Sites you can refer if you encounter any problem: Oracle.com and Ubuntu Wiki. I didn’t follow any of the steps mentioned in those sites except the ones I have listed above. There is no need to create dba group etc as given in the wiki.
I then downloaded SQL Developer and unzipped it. It created a directory called sqldeveloper. I then issued the following command from that directory:
sh sqldeveloper
It said it couldn’t find JDK 1.5 and asked me to enter the path. I have installed Blackdown Java already, but it didn’t take that. I then downloaded JDK 5 Update 6 and installed it with the following steps:
- sudo apt-get install fakeroot java-package (If you haven’t installed them already)
- fakeroot make-jpkg jdk-1_5_0_06-linux-i586.bin
- sudo dpkg -i jdk-1_5_0_06-linux-i586.bin
I then gave the path of the jdk folder. It took the path and errored out while trying to start the SQL Developer. I have listed the error below:
Unable to find configuration file: jdk.conf
Type the full pathname of a J2SE installation (or Ctrl-C to quit), the path will be stored in ~/.sqldeveloper_jdk
/usr/lib/j2se/1.4
Working directory is /home/arun/sqldeveloper/jdev/bin
Exception in thread “main” java.lang.NullPointerException
at java.util.Hashtable.get(Hashtable.java:333)
at java.util.logging.LogManager.getLogger(LogManager.java:437)
at java.util.logging.Logger.getLogger (Logger.java:228)
at oracle.ide.performance.PerformanceLogger.(PerformanceLogger.java:64)
at oracle.ide.performance.PerformanceLogger.get(PerformanceLogger.java:94)
at oracle.ideimpl.Main.main (Main.java:21)
I’m not sure how to fix this error. I don’t know if it’s caused by Blackdown Java installation (multiple java path). I even tried exporting the path, but it didn’t work. I’m stuck on that. I have to do some more googling and find out.
Update: You need to add your username to the dba group. I forgot to mention it in the steps above. Go to System – Adminstration – Users and Groups. Go to Groups tab and select dba from the left pane. Click on properties (or edit) and add your user name to that group. You need this if you want to manually start and shutdown the database. If you have selected start database while starting Ubuntu, then you may not need this step.
Freespire…
Posted 25 Apr 2006 — by Arun
Category Announcement, Technology
Category Announcement, Technology
ELIVE and Enlightment review
Posted 24 Apr 2006 — by Arun
Category Technology
Category Technology
I was sick for almost 4 days due to allergy (it happens every April) and I’m feeling much better now. I read somewhere about a Linux distribution named ELive. The ISO creates a live CD and from there you install it if you want. It is based on the Enlightment window manager instead of GNOME or KDE. The live CD was fast enough in my old Pentium (600 mHZ) computer. The window manger is light and fast compared to GNOME and KDE. I then started the installer to install it on my hard drive. I chose the ext3 partition and the installer was painfully slow. It took around 3 hours to install. Once installed, the system booted at decent speed. I liked the default desktop. It has important applications as Icons in the taskbar that is similar to Mac OS. I also liked the control panel window called ELive Panel. It’s much more modern compared to other window managers. The options windows, programs etc. worked reasonably fast on my slow system. I opened the synaptic repositories and added the debian security update one. I then upgraded the system through Synaptic. The upgrade went almost till the end where it errored out (I forgot to write down the error). I closed Synaptic and restarted the system. The graphical window manager failed to start after the restart. I was presented with the text login. I didn’t have time to dig and restart the graphical window manager.
Kudos to the developers. Keep up the good work.
After I tried ELive, I installed the Enlightment in laptop under Ubuntu. It took me sometime to get used to the desktop navigation. Once I found out basic stuff like which mouse button for which menu, I tried the left mouse button to get the application menu. It didn’t work. The right mouse button worked for settings menu. I then checked the help and rebuilt the menus. The menus worked fine then. The next problem I encountered was with submenus with lots of programs listed. I couldn’t select the program from the list because the menu kept moving up to accomodate the entire submenu and losing focus. After struggling for a long time, I changed the theme. The theme change made the letters small and that helped to fit the menu within the screen. My thought about this window manager is, It’s not for regular and non-technical users. It’s for geeks. It’ll take sometime to learn and get used to. The entire window manager is mouse based, so unless you have enough time to sit and learn, it’s not going to be easy. I went back to GNOME for time being.
Ubuntu Dapper beta available now
Posted 21 Apr 2006 — by Arun
Category Announcement, Ubuntu
Category Announcement, Ubuntu
Thunderbird 1.5.0.2 released
Posted 20 Apr 2006 — by Arun
Category Announcement, Technology
Category Announcement, Technology
Ubuntu Dapper starter guide
Posted 18 Apr 2006 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu
Category Ubuntu
If you are a Ubuntu newbie using Dapper (pre-beta release), Click here to access the Ubuntu Starter Guide for Dapper.