Richmond Open Source Community - Hardy Heron 8.04

Processing Digital Camera videos for Flickr with Ubuntu Linux

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:38:19 -0400

Here's how I processed some digital camera videos for uploading to Flickr. The things I wanted to adjust were:

Shortening the length
Removing the original Audio track
Adding new music, using a sound loop

Nothing particularly that seems like it should be hard. (Details after the break)

Windows and Linux dual-boot failure story

Mon, 26 May 2008 21:03:50 -0400

0x0000007B. This was the error code nestled in a blue screen of death when trying to boot Windows XP after an install of Ubuntu Hardy Heron. The screen flashes so quickly I had to boot to it once just notice there was an error code and then two more times to transcribe the hexidecimal error code.

Skipping the details of the hours of research and troubleshooting, the end result was a determination that to make Windows work again, the hard drive would need to be wiped clean of both Windows and Ubuntu Linux.

I generally recommend against dual-boot systems except as a transitional solution. It at least doubles the complexity of the system, creating two paradigms each with their own maintenance and gotchas.

Browse, E-mail and launch applications faster with Deskbar

Sat, 03 May 2008 21:32:22 -0400

Deskbar is feature built-in to Ubuntu Linux that speeds up common tasks by letting my type just a word and having it "do what I mean". Some examples:

If I want to use my chat program, I don't no longer have to think about whether it is already running or not, to decide whether to use a "task launcher" or a "task switcher". I just type "chat", and Deskbar will do the right thing-- Switch to it if it is open, or launch it if it is not.

The ability to "just think of the application" is the core elegance of the Mac OS X Dock, yet so many imitations of it get it wrong and continue to separate the concepts of task switching and launching. Deskbar thankfully allows you to just think of an application without being concerned about whether or not it is already open. But that said Deskbar is not a dock and the similarity with the OS X Dock ends there.