Wish everyone a wonderful New Year!!!
Archive for December, 2008
Happy New Year!!!
Posted 31 Dec 2008 — by Arun
Category General
Category General
Happy Holidays!!!
Posted 23 Dec 2008 — by Arun
Category General
Category General
My office is closed for holidays from 25th to January 04th. I may not be able to blog quite often during the holidays.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!
How to install Samsung CLP-300 laser printer in Ubuntu
Posted 23 Dec 2008 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu
Category Ubuntu
Note: This post was written for Ubuntu 9.04 and older version.
I bought the Samsung CLP-300 color laser printer few months back. It’s quite compact and energy star compliant. It’s a decent printer for home use. You can’t print photos in photo paper, but it’s pretty good for regular documents. The good thing about this printer is that it’s compatible with Linux. Ubuntu comes with the printer driver, but forums advised against using that. They instead suggested using the open source driver. Here are the steps to install the driver. Warning: The steps involves using a terminal.
a. If you are using Ubuntu 8.10, then enable /proc/bus/usb support as given here.
b. If you are using Ubuntu 8.04, then type the following command in a terminal and press enter
sudo gedit /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh
Remove the comments under the section
#
# Magic to KEEP /proc/bus/usb working
#
#mkdir -p /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs
#domount usbfs �� /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs usbfs -obusmode=0700,devmode=0600,listmode=0644
#ln -s .usbfs/devices /dev/bus/usb/devices
#mount �rbind /dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb
It should look like
#
# Magic to KEEP /proc/bus/usb working
#
mkdir -p /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs
domount usbfs �� /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs usbfs -obusmode=0700,devmode=0600,listmode=0644
ln -s .usbfs/devices /dev/bus/usb/devices
mount �rbind /dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb
Save the file.
You can reboot or type the following command:
sudo /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh start
Once you are done with step a or b, open a terminal again.
Type the following commands one by one and press enter
- wget -O foo2zjs.tar.gz http://foo2zjs.rkkda.com/foo2zjs.tar.gz
- tar zxf foo2zjs.tar.gz
- cd foo2zjs
- make
- ./getweb 300
- sudo make install
- sudo cp samclp300-0.icm /usr/share/foo2qpdl/icm/
- sudo cp samclp300-0.icm /usr/share/foo2zjs/icm/
Reboot� your computer and your printer should be ready. You can check it by going to System – Administration – Printers.
Thanks to foo2qpdl for the help.
Samsung CLP-300
Hybrid Blu-Ray / DVD Disc Announced
Posted 22 Dec 2008 — by Arun
Category News
Category News
Infinity Storage Media has released the first Blu-Ray/DVD hybrid disc in Japan. According to My Digital Life,
The new technology, which embeds both Blu-ray and DVD compatible contents on the same disc is believed to be able to smoothen the migration process from DVD to most desired full HD (High Definition) Blu-ray standard especially for those users that still stick with existing DVD standard.
The benefit is obvious, now users will be able to run the same copy of DVD disc in both conventional DVD players and Blu-ray players without worrying about the old favorite movies compatibility with new Blu-ray machines. The mechanism behind is it is based on the different laser wavelength that can penetrate into different layers (isolated by semi-reflective film) embedded in the disc to read DVD and Blu-ray media contents respectively. For instance, it reflects blue light on upper layer for Blu-ray contents readings while able to pass through red light to the DVD layer underneath.
I’m not sure if there will be performance impact compared to using either just Blu-Ray or DVD.
Enabling USB in Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex
Posted 19 Dec 2008 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu
Category Ubuntu
If you are trying to install a driver for your USB printer or trying to enable USB support in Virtualbox in Ubuntu 8.10, you are in more trouble than before. Ubuntu removed support for /proc/bus/usb starting with Ubuntu 7.10, but in Ubuntu 7.10 and Ubuntu 8.04, all they did was, they commented out the lines that enabled /proc/bus/usb to work and all you had to do was to uncomment them as shown here. In Ubuntu 8.10, they all together removed those lines. To enable /proc/bus/usb in Ubuntu 8.10, you have to add the following lines to mountdevsubfs.sh file.
Warning: The blogging software changed the quotes. You should use normal quotes, not the reverse one, so be careful if you copy and paste.
Open a terminal and type sudo gedit /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh and press enter. Once the file opens, add the following lines after do_start () function.
#
# Magic to KEEP /proc/bus/usb working
#
mkdir -p /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs
domount usbfs “” /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs usbfs -obusmode=0700,devmode=0600,listmode=0644
ln -s .usbfs/devices /dev/bus/usb/devices
mount –rbind /dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb ##there should be 2 hyphens before rbind, not one. The blogging software removed one hyphen
Your new mountdevsubfs.sh should look like
do_start () {
#
# Mount a tmpfs on /dev/shm
#
SHM_OPT=
[ "${SHM_SIZE:=$TMPFS_SIZE}" ] && SHM_OPT=”,size=$SHM_SIZE”
domount tmpfs shmfs /dev/shm tmpfs -onosuid,nodev$SHM_OPT#
# Mount /dev/pts. Master ptmx node is already created by udev.
#
domount devpts “” /dev/pts devpts -onoexec,nosuid,gid=$TTYGRP,mode=$TTYMODE
}
#
# Magic to KEEP /proc/bus/usb working
#
mkdir -p /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs
domount usbfs “” /dev/bus/usb/.usbfs usbfs -obusmode=0700,devmode=0600,listmode=0644
ln -s .usbfs/devices /dev/bus/usb/devices
mount –rbind /dev/bus/usb /proc/bus/usb ##there should be 2 hyphens before rbind, not one. The blogging software removed one hyphen
case “$1″ in
“”)
echo “Warning: mountdevsubfs should be called with the ’start’ argument.” >&2
do_start
;;
start)
Save the file and close it. Reboot the system and you are good to go.
Update: Ubuntu Virtualbox documentation says you have to insert those lines inside the do_start() function, just before the closing }. That didn’t work when I tried to install my USB laser printer. Putting it outside worked. What I did now was, I added the same lines inside too, but my Virtualbox USB is still not working.
Mineral capable of supporting life discovered in Mars
Posted 19 Dec 2008 — by Arun
Category Science
Category Science
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found an important mineral on Mar’s surface that leads researchers to believe the planet once was hospitable to life. According to Reuters UK:
Deposits of carbonate, formed in neutral or alkaline water, were spotted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the scientists told a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Carbonate is formed when water and carbon dioxide mix with calcium, iron or magnesium. It dissolves quickly in acid, so its discovery counters the theory that all water on Mars was at one time acidic. Carbonates on Earth like chalk or limestone sometimes preserve organic material, but scientists have found no such evidence on Mars.
The 3.6 billion-year-old carbonate was discovered in bedrock at the edge of a 930-mile-wide (1,490-km-wide) crater. This is the first time scientists have found a site where carbonate formed. The deposits are about the size of football fields and are visible in images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Interesting…..
How to get Skype microphone and sound work in Kubuntu
Posted 18 Dec 2008 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu
Category Ubuntu
I did this in my laptop with Kubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, KDE 4.2 beta and HDA Intel sound card. It might work with other sound cards, but I’m not sure. Here is what I did to get the microphone and sound work.
Click on the volume icon in the system tray and click the Mixer button. It’ll open the volume control setting as shown in the figure. You might see only few options by default. Click on the Settings menu and select channel configuration option. You’ll see a screen similar to the one shown below. Select Front Mic, Front Mic Boost, Mic, Mic Boost, Capture and Capture 2. I’m not sure if all are needed, but I didn’t have time to test one by one. Once you select those, click OK. You’ll be back to the mixer panel now.
Move the slider under PCM to the top. This will increase the volume to the max. Even if you increase the slider to the max when you click the volume icon, the speaker volume may not be high. Increasing the PCM to the max will increase the speaker volume to the max. Now check the mute check box for headphone (don’t do this if you are using a headphone), move the sliders to the max for Front Mic, Mic, Capture and Capture 2. Check both the check boxes above the Capture. Make sure your setting is similar to the one shown below. Adjusting the Front Mic Boost and Mic Boost will increase your microphone volume, but your speaker might squeal if you increase it too much.
Now click the small Skype icon in the Skype window and select options. In the options window, select Sound Devices on the left. Make a test call with Sound In and Sound Out as Default. If that doesn’t work, click the drop down boxes under Sound In and Sound Out and select HDA Intel (hw:Intel,0) (or whatever the first option after default) for both Sound In and Out. Click Apply and try the test call. It should work. Atleast, it worked for me.
Going home, bye!!!
Posted 17 Dec 2008 — by misc
Category General
Category General
Yet another proof of global warming
Posted 17 Dec 2008 — by Arun
Category News
Category News
Between 1.5 trillion and 2 trillion tons of ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted at an accelerating rate since 2003, according to NASA scientists. The losses amounted to enough water to fill the Chesapeake Bay 21 times.
In the past five years, Greenland has lost between 150 gigatons and 160 gigatons each year, (one gigaton equals one billion tons) or enough to raise global sea levels about .5 mm per year. The mountain glaciers in the Gulf of Alaska lost about 84 gigatons each year, about five times the average annual flow of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
When the vast ice sheets and glaciers melt, they lose their reflective power, and instead, oceans and land absorb the heat, causing the Arctic waters and the atmosphere to warm faster. In the 1990s, Greenland took in as much snow and water as it let out. But now, about 15 years later, sea levels are rising about 50 percent faster, making the global climate situation even more unpredictable.
Source: CNN.
Amazon.com running sweatshop in Britain
Posted 16 Dec 2008 — by Arun
Category News
Category News
According to Times Online, Amazon.com, one of the largest online retailer, was running it’s warehouse like a sweatshop. An investigation by The Sunday Times at Amazon’s enormous warehouse in Bedfordshire has found that workers were:
- Warned that the company refuses to allow sick leave, even if the worker has a legitimate doctor’s note. Taking a day off sick, even with a note, results in a penalty point. A worker with six points faces dismissal.
- Made to work a compulsory 10½hour overnight shift at the end of a five-day week. The overnight shift, which runs from Saturday evening to 5am on Sunday, means they have to work every day of the week.
- Set quotas for the number of items to be picked or packed in an hour that even a manager described as “ridiculous”. Those packing heavy Xbox games consoles had to pack 140 an hour to reach their target.
- Set against each other with a bonus scheme that penalizes staff if any other member of their group fails to hit the quota.
- Made to walk up to 14 miles a shift to collect items for packing.
- Given only one break of 15 minutes and another of 20 minutes per eight-hour shift and told they had to get permission to go to the toilet.
If the story is true, Amazon should better change their practice or people should stop buying products from Amazon.
