Converting videos to play on the Sony Ericsson P1i

All the playing around with transcoders for the Creative Zen got me thinking about watching videos on my Sony Ericsson P1i. It has roughly the same size and resolution screen as the Zen, although probably less colours, and a even more limited video player.

First I tried using transcode, but quickly learned that the P1i video player likes 3GP files, which use MPEG4/H.263/H.264 for video, and AMR/AAC for audio. Both of these codecs have license/patent issues, which means they aren't built into your usual rpm files.

I then found this blog post and was inspired to try using ffmpeg. The vanilla rpm on my aspire one didn't include aac/amr, so I gave source building a try.

Install SVN, and checkout the source for ffmpeg
sudo yum install svn
svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg

Install amr and faac codecs
sudo yum install amrnb amrnb-devel
sudo yum install faac-devel

Configure and make ffmpeg
./configure --enable-libfaac --enable-libamr-nb --enable-nonfree
make

Convert avi file to 3gp
./ffmpeg -i /mnt/nas/somebody.avi -s qcif -vcodec h263 -acodec libfaac -ab 128000 -y somebody.3gp

Copy to phone, and play
cp somebody.3gp /media/PHONE\ CARD/video/

it works!
I found that the player couldn't handle resolutions other than qcif (176x144). More experimentation is required to see what else it can handle.

I've read that H.264 would be worth trying, and perhaps the audio rate I'm using is an overkill. This post also is interesting.

Still, I'm not that sure I actually want to watch video on the phone... so perhaps I'll just end here :)

Happy New Year!

libmtp #2

To give libmtp a fair chance I downloaded the lastest released version, compiled and installed it, and retried. I must say the process went smoothly -

./configure
make
sudo make install
./hotplug.sh

(it seems the fedora 8 rpm for libmtp is very old... still I'm avoiding moving from linpus on the aspire one... I was however impressed yesterday by a fedore 10 vmware image... hmm.. q-emu on linpus perhaps?)

The updated mtp-sendtr now prompts for meta-data which is nice. I found giving an empty album name resulted in a seg fault... however, after being more forth-coming with meta-data, it worked!

Starting program: /usr/local/bin/mtp-sendtr u2.avi u2.avi
libmtp version: 0.3.3

PTP: Opening session
u2.avi,u2.avi,(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),00,0,0
Sending track u2.avi to u2.avi
type:avi,8
Title> U2
Album> U2
Album artist> U2
Artist> U2
Writer or Composer> U2
Genre> rock
Track number> 1
Year> 2004
Length> 228
Sending track:
Codec: Audio Video Interleave
Title: U2
Album: U2
Album artist: U2
Artist: U2
Writer or Composer: U2
Genre: rock
Year: 2004
Track no: 1
Length: 228
Storage ID: 0
Sending track...
Progress: 25604828 of 25604828 (100%)
New track ID: 94879
Album doesn't exist: creating...
success!
PTP: Closing session

Program exited normally.

The length I found using
[user@localhost ~]$ tcprobe -i u2.avi
[tcprobe] RIFF data, AVI video
[avilib] V: 29.970 fps, codec=XVID, frames=6856, width=320, height=240
[avilib] A: 44100 Hz, format=0x55, bits=16, channels=2, bitrate=128 kbps,
[avilib] 6856 chunks, 3659103 bytes, CBR
[tcprobe] summary for u2.avi, (*) = not default, 0 = not detected
import frame size: -g 320x240 [720x576] (*)
frame rate: -f 29.970 [25.000] frc=4 (*)
audio track: -a 0 [0] -e 44100,16,2 [48000,16,2] -n 0x55 [0x2000] (*)
bitrate=128 kbps
length: 6856 frames, frame_time=33 msec, duration=0:03:48.761

and simply converted it to seconds.

Perhaps I should give gnomad2 another try, with a later release of libmtp.

Creative Zen, libmtp, gnomad2

Today I've encountered a number of bugs (and unexpected features)... mostly whilst trying to get fast forward, rewind and duration to work on video files transferred to the Creative Zen. After spending a number of hours trying to re-encode the video files with different tools, switches and the like - some heavy googling revealed that the problem might lie with the method I was using to transfer the files onto the device!

A quick test, using Windows to transfer the files instead of Linux + libmtp showed that the transfer method was the problem. MTP is Microsoft's Media Transfer Protocol, and unfortunately (for me) it allows meta-data to be sent 'out of band', ie. not relying on the data embedded in the media files being transferred. The duration of a video clip is one such piece of metadata, and the Zen apparently relies on this metadata when seeking in a video file.

libmtp comes with an (example) tool 'mtp-sendfile' which I'd been using, as well as a 'mtp-sendtr' which perhaps is more appropriate, as it allows meta-data to be specified. Unfortunately it doesn't handle .avi files in the release I have at least.

In the process, of investigating the above, I managed to 'corrupt' data in the Zen, such that it thought all the videos on it were gone. A reboot of the device resolved this.

I then found a blog post http://tiagoboldt.net/blog/creative-zen-linux/ indicating that gnomad2 handles the meta-data correctly. It uses libnjb to communicate with the device (I'm not sure if this is a layer above mtp or beside). Unfortunately it behaved badly on my machine, crashing with a seg-fault, and leaving the Zen hanging.

libnjb is beautifully documented via doxygen, so perhaps I'll read up more on it, and even do some coding to get a working solution :)

Dependencies and video transcoding

Well it seems that I'd made one of the great Fedora no-nos and enable yum repositories for both livna and freshrpms.

This led to the problems below, whilst trying to install transcode -
ffmpeg-libs-0.4.9-0.42.20071121.lvn8.i386 from installed has depsolving problems
--> Missing Dependency: libx264.so.56 is needed by package ffmpeg-libs-0.4.9-0.42.20071121.lvn8.i386 (installed)
Error: Missing Dependency: libx264.so.56 is needed by package ffmpeg-libs-0.4.9-0.42.20071121.lvn8.i386 (installed)

I found an explanation here -
http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Fedora/2008-01/msg04547.html

And resolved it by disabling the livna repo, then -
[user@localhost ~]$ sudo yum erase ffmpeg-libs
This was installed from livna, and then re-install my video utilities from freshrpms -

[user@localhost ~]$ sudo yum install transcode
[user@localhost ~]$ sudo yum install dvdrip

[user@localhost ~]$ sudo yum erase libdvbpsi
[user@localhost ~]$ sudo yum install vlc

I was then able to reencode and resize videos for the Creative Zen as follows -

[user@localhost ~]$ transcode -i /mnt/nas/Music\ Videos/input.mpg -y xvid4 -o test.avi -Z 320x240 -w 768,100
(Transcode takes a plethora of options which probably need tweaking... that I'll try to get back to some time)

Connecting to the Creative Zen requires MTP (Media Transfer Protocol), so -

[user@localhost ~]$ sudo yum install libmtp libmtp-devel libmtp-examples

[user@localhost ~]$ mtp-sendfile test.avi test.avi

And surprisingly enough... it works!

Merry Christmas

I've been working hard, learning JDBC and enjoying coding for the last few days... but now it's time to relax, eat and enjoy the Christmas break.

Merry Christmas

and let's hope it's bug-free :)

Annoying touchpad?

Whilst workable, the touchpad on my Aspire one always seemed way too sensitive, and it would keep scrolling the screen when I didn't want it too.

Eventually I tired of it... went into the settings, reduced the sensitivity further, and disabled the scrolling function. Problems solved :)

Embarrassingly simple!

autofs #3

Ok, I weakened... again this isn't a pretty solution, and it seems NetworkManager is becoming my friend...

[user@localhost ~]$ cat /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/03-autofs 
#!/bin/sh
if [ "$2" = "up" ]; then
 AUTOFS=/etc/init.d/autofs

 if [ ! -x $AUTOFS ]; then
    exit 0
 fi

 $AUTOFS start > /dev/null
fi

autofs #2

Well, I'm back from vacation... the Aspire One survived the journey well, it really is light and compact enough, that you can travel with it without noticing it. The biggest hassle was the lack of a 'global' WiFi network. In Amsterdam it costs you 10 euro's to log in... Melbourne down to $5, in Kuala Lumpur free. At cafe's and hotels a similar story, sometimes free, sometimes expensive... but you find yourself wondering is it worthwhile digging out the credit card. A 3G modem would in an ideal world avoid these hassles. In the real world, there's still the cost of global roaming, and the fact that UMTS hasn't yet completely replaced GSM. Occasionally you'll find yourself barely getting 10kbps.

Anyway back to autofs... two annoyances remain -
- I don't have a dns or mdns or zeroconfig solution on my home network
- On linpus, /etc/hosts is replaced at each boot
- autofs needs the hostname for my NAS (could be avoided using the IP address I guess)
- for some reason autofs isn't starting automatically, although chkconfig shows it configured

Well here's my somewhat ugly solution to the host name problem

[user@localhost ~]$ cat /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/02-hosts
#!/bin/bash
if [ "$2" = "up" ];
then
       FOUND=`grep dlink-EEF76A /etc/hosts | wc -l`

       if [ $FOUND = "0" ];
       then
               echo "Updating /etc/hosts"
               DATE=`date`
               echo "#updated by $0 at ${DATE}" >> /etc/hosts
               echo "192.168.1.10    dlink-EEF76A" >> /etc/hosts
       fi;
fi

autofs

Install autofs (yum install autofs), then follow the link below
Auto-mounting the NAS using autofs -
Accessing Windows Or Samba Shares Using AutoFS
add an entry for the NAS in /etc/hosts

Something fundamental I've missed is that autofs gets the key on demand.
so -
[user@localhost ~]$ ll /cifs
total 0

which isn't promising... but

[user@localhost ~]$ ll /cifs/DLINK-EEF76A/
total 0
drwxrwxrwx 24 user user 0 2008-10-16 01:43 Volume_1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 2008-10-20 19:21 web_page

is what we want :)

A symbolic link simplifies access -
sudo ln -s /cifs/DLINK-EEF76A /mnt/nas

udev

After some compilation and installation following this post FC8 HP LaserJet M1005 MFP installation -step-by-step-, I managed to get my scanner to work on Linpus. Unfortunately only as root. To get past this, I needed to dig into the world of udev. Here's what I found -

The scanner is found, as follows -
[user@localhost udev]$ sane-find-scanner
found USB scanner (vendor=0x03f0, product=0x3b17) at libusb:001:004

and after updating /etc/udev/rules.d/60-libsane.rules, udev is creating a symlink for the scanner -

[user@localhost udev]$ ll /dev/scanner-1-2.3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 2008-10-20 16:33 /dev/scanner-1-2.3 -> bus/usb/001/004
[user@localhost udev]$ ll /dev/bus/usb/001/004
crw-r--r--+ 1 user root 189, 3 2008-10-20 16:54 /dev/bus/usb/001/004

and magically after a restart, it's even creating them with the right owner. A lot of playing around yesterday (perhaps without restarting) had me frustrated, as it was consistently created with root:root as the owner.

DAR backup

Well I started looking at the different file base alternatives, but relatively quickly put many of them on hold. They each have there benefits, and I'll try to get back to them soon - but here in bugwhine style, I'll just explain why I put them on hold.

unison
Interesting file synchronizing tool.
Unfortunately on hold, as it's written in Objective Caml, so building for Linpus may require a bunch of work, I don't have time to follow this path right now.

rdiff-backup
In brief - File based backup directory -> directory. Hard links and special files, permissions etc. are preserved.
Incremental diffs are preserved in a special directory.
rpm available at livna (rdiff-backup.i386)

Why on hold -
- requires own server on NAS
- backup to/from cifs/samba mount not recommended
- file based

rsnapshot
A filesystem snapshot tool, using rsync.
rpm available at livna - rsnapshot.noarch
Why on hold -
- snapshots may become 'messy' on the backup filesystem
- written in perl (*)

duplicity
Uploads encrypted tar volumes to remote system. Uses librsync.
rpm available at livna - duplicity.i386

Why on hold -
- doesn't handle hard links
- written in python (*)

DAR - Disk Archive
In the end DAR was the first utility I made a successful full and incremental backup with (ie. without putting it on hold). It's available at livna -

[root@localhost ~]# yum install dar.i386

My first impressions from the documentation and the command line switches was that it looked a bit primitive, and that maybe I should have not given up so easily on the other tools.

I tried a complete backup first as follows -

[root@localhost ~]# dar -v -z -R / -P dev -P proc -P mnt -P sys -P tmp -c /mnt/nas/aspire/full

and remained skeptical. It took quite some time, but the resulting file was a compact 915MB.
To put it further to the test, I tried an incremental backup -

[root@localhost ~]# dar -v -z -R / -P dev -P proc -P mnt -P sys -P tmp -A /mnt/nas/aspire/full -c /mnt/nas/aspire/diff1
...
--------------------------------------------
59 inode(s) saved
with 2324 hard link(s) recorded
0 inode(s) changed at the moment of the backup
80778 inode(s) not saved (no inode/file change)
0 inode(s) failed to save (filesystem error)
5 inode(s) ignored (excluded by filters)
0 inode(s) recorded as deleted from reference backup
--------------------------------------------
Total number of inode considered: 80842
--------------------------------------------

At this point my skepticism had almost completely died. The incremental backup was very fast, and efficient. Being 'tar' style (single file on the destination device), there aren't issues with cifs/samba permissions. A clean result, but still with the possibility to quickly restore individual files.

[root@localhost ~]# du -h /mnt/nas/aspire/*
3.0M /mnt/nas/aspire/diff1.1.dar
915M /mnt/nas/aspire/full.1.dar

The remaining thing bothering me, is manually specifying the paths to exclude from the backup. Perhaps a small thing, and perhaps something I should tune further.

I need to look further into a backup schedule, recovery methods and management of the archives with dar_manager - but this feels like a good start.

Thumbs up DAR.

(*) Perl and Python fans - I'm not against these languages at all. I just find that scripted solutions tend to be less well integrated than compiled solutions. Output messsages, exception handling etc, is often unprofessional in solutions based on scripting languages - and it was fairly clear that this is true also for rsnapshot and duplicity.

Backup of Aspire One to DNS-323

I want to backup my Aspire One to my DNS-323 NAS, there are a plethora of ways to do this, so I thought I'd evaluate them here.

The following methods came to mind immediately -
- copy the whole hard disk/partition image (ghost style)
- copy at a file level, rsync style

Initially I like the whole image method. It speeds up the recovery process, and with a Linux style implementation, it's probably possible to loop mount the image, if one just wants to recover some files anyway. Or would this require 120GB or RAM? :)

The first obstacle of the image method is that you probably need to have the file system either not mounted or mounted read-only. This could be a hassle - I certainly don't want to have to boot on an external drive to perform a backup... but maybe dropping down to single user mode would be ok.

It's worth noting that the Aspire one comes with a recovery DVD (bootable via external drive or copy to USB key), that can restore the system to it's factory install. This should be a reasonable starting point for then restoring changed applications/data/configuration from the backup mechanisms evaluated here.

Partimage
Well I liked the look of partimage, and decided to start here. Rather than setup partimaged on the NAS, it seems mounting the filesystem was an easier way to go. See below -

[user@localhost ~]$ su - Password:
[root@localhost ~]# modprobe cifs
[root@localhost ~]# mkdir /mnt/nas
[root@localhost ~]# mount -t cifs //192.168.1.10/Volume_1 /mnt/nas
Password:
[root@localhost ~]# wget "http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/partimage/partimage-static-0.6.5-1.rh7.rf.i386.rpm"
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -i partimage-static-0.6.5-1.rh7.rf.i386.rpm
warning: partimage-static-0.6.5-1.rh7.rf.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 6b8d79e6
[root@localhost ~]# partimage-static

I then added an fstab entry for the partition
//192.168.1.10/Volume_1 /mnt/nas cifs auto,rw,user=guest,password=guest

but soon wandered off into issues with mounting it as a normal (non root user). For now I'm relying on sudo.
The big challenge is to unmount the root partition, or remount it in read-only mode, such that partimage can be safely used to produce a consistent image.

As the standard Linpus install only has one partition + swap, this challenge stumped me. The only options I see are unfortunately booting off external media, or doing some repartitioning. This is where I give up on this method for now.

Next I'll take a look at unison or rdiff-backup -
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
http://www.nongnu.org/rdiff-backup/

ssh and telnet

Well, what's a Linux install without ssh and telnet? I'm trying to resist hacking my new toy before I've learned it's pitfalls.. but ssh is something I need.

I'm starting as suggested by "The road to Elysium", let's hope it's a good road.

Alt-F2, Check 'Run in terminal', Run

[user@localhost ~]$ su -
Password:
[root@localhost ~]# yum -y install yum-priorities
fedora 2.1 kB 00:00
primary.sqlite.bz2 4.9 MB 00:07
updates 100% |=========================| 2.6 kB 00:00
primary.sqlite.bz2 100% |=========================| 2.2 kB 00:00
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package yum-priorities.noarch 0:1.1.8-1.fc8 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
yum-priorities noarch 1.1.8-1.fc8 fedora 8.1 k

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install 1 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)

Total download size: 8.1 k
Downloading Packages:
(1/1): yum-priorities-1.1.8-1.fc8.noarch.rpm 8.1 kB 00:00
warning: rpmts_HdrFromFdno: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 4f2a6fd2
Importing GPG key 0x4F2A6FD2 "Fedora Project " from /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora
Importing GPG key 0xDB42A60E "Red Hat, Inc " from /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing: yum-priorities ######################### [1/1]

Installed: yum-priorities.noarch 0:1.1.8-1.fc8
Complete!

Check the contents of yum-priorities, edit it to match the below -

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/priorities.conf
[main]
enabled = 1
check_obsoletes = 1

Install the livna repository -
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uvh http://www.fedorafaq.org/f8/yum http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm
Retrieving http://www.fedorafaq.org/f8/yum
Retrieving http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm
warning: /var/tmp/rpm-xfer.N4ZUob: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID a109b1ec
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:livna-release ########################################### [ 50%]
2:yum-fedorafaq ########################################### [100%]

Some quick checking with yum shows openssl is ready installed, but not openssh.

[root@localhost ~]# yum list openssh*
Loading "priorities" plugin
119 packages excluded due to repository priority protections
Available Packages
openssh.i386 4.7p1-2.fc8 fedora
openssh-askpass.i386 4.7p1-2.fc8 fedora
openssh-clients.i386 4.7p1-2.fc8 fedora
openssh-server.i386 4.7p1-2.fc8 fedora
[root@localhost ~]# yum install openssh*
Loading "priorities" plugin
119 packages excluded due to repository priority protections
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package openssh-askpass.i386 0:4.7p1-2.fc8 set to be updated
---> Package openssh-clients.i386 0:4.7p1-2.fc8 set to be updated
---> Package openssh.i386 0:4.7p1-2.fc8 set to be updated
---> Package openssh-server.i386 0:4.7p1-2.fc8 set to be updated
filelists.xml.gz 100% |=========================| 173 kB 00:01
filelists.sqlite.bz2 8.0 MB 00:22
filelists.sqlite.bz2 100% |=========================| 224 kB 00:01
filelists.sqlite.bz2 100% |=========================| 3.0 kB 00:00
filelists.sqlite.bz2 100% |=========================| 394 kB 00:00
filelists.sqlite.bz2 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
filelists.sqlite.bz2 100% |=========================| 76 kB 00:00
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
openssh-askpass i386 4.7p1-2.fc8 fedora 38 k
openssh-clients i386 4.7p1-2.fc8 fedora 463 k
openssh-server i386 4.7p1-2.fc8 fedora 264 k
Installing for dependencies:
openssh i386 4.7p1-2.fc8 fedora 284 k

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install 4 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)

Total download size: 1.0 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/4): openssh-server-4.7p1-2.fc8.i386.rpm 264 kB 00:00
(2/4): openssh-4.7p1-2.fc8.i386.rpm 284 kB 00:00
(3/4): openssh-clients-4.7p1-2.fc8.i386.rpm 463 kB 00:00
(4/4): openssh-askpass-4.7p1-2.fc8.i386.rpm 38 kB 00:00
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing: openssh ######################### [1/4]
Installing: openssh-askpass ######################### [2/4]
Installing: openssh-clients ######################### [3/4]
Installing: openssh-server ######################### [4/4]

Installed: openssh-askpass.i386 0:4.7p1-2.fc8 openssh-clients.i386 0:4.7p1-2.fc8 openssh-server.i386 0:4.7p1-2.fc8
Dependency Installed: openssh.i386 0:4.7p1-2.fc8
Complete!

And, oh how I love it when things work first go!

[root@localhost ~]# ssh root@192.168.1.10
The authenticity of host '192.168.1.10 (192.168.1.10)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 06:86:21:cb:61:3d:4f:4d:02:7f:41:22:0a:2b:52:0d.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.1.10' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
root@192.168.1.10's password:
root@dlink-EEF76A:~# uname -a
Linux dlink-EEF76A 2.6.12.6-arm1 #29 Wed Apr 30 10:03:59 CST 2008 armv5tejl unknown
root@dlink-EEF76A:~# exit
Connection to 192.168.1.10 closed.

and for completeness -

[root@localhost ~]# yum install telnet.i386
...
Installed: telnet.i386 1:0.17-41.fc8
Complete!
[root@localhost ~]# telnet 192.168.1.10
Trying 192.168.1.10...
Connected to 192.168.1.10.
Escape character is '^]'.



BusyBox v1.12.0.svn (2008-07-11 12:43:14 CEST) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

# exit
Connection closed by foreign host.

It has arrived

All the way from Finland, shiny and small :)

Acer Aspire One A150L

Well, I've finally given up on my old Dell Inspiron 600m. It had it's good times, but in the end, two problems killed it.

1. Physical
At a party I hosted, a friends 2 year old girl fell off the bed, and landed head first on the Dell. Amazingly she was not really hurt. The next day I realised why, the LCD had softened the blow, and no longer worked.

2. HW bug
From when I purchased the machine (back in 2004), it occasionally had a problem, where for no apparent reason, the machine would run incredibly slowly (usually from power on). Over the years it became more frequent, now it happens most of the time. I've given up on trying to troubleshot this... but the same behaviour occurs both in Linux and Windows, so I'm fairly sure it's a hardware problem.

So now it's out with the old, in with the new -

Aspire one A150-A / 8.9" LED CB / Atom N270 1.6Ghz / UMA / 2*512 / 1*120GB / 802.11bg / 5-in-1 / SD / 3 cells / 0.3DV CrystalEye / Linux Lite / blue


One of these is on it's way to me now (I hope). In some markets the hard disk version of the Aspire one (A150) is sold only with it's Microsoft tax paid - Sweden is one such market. Fortunately in Finland and the UK, the Linux variant is sold.. and I managed to find a Swedish online store (Multitronic) that has Finnish roots - and they're selling the Finnish, Microsoft tax-free version here in Sweden.

So.. if you're wondering how much Microsoft taxes PC makers for XP, it seems to be 641 SEK (around $90US), give or take Swedish moms (or VAT), which is more difficult to avoid.

Google Chrome vs Corporate security

The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000005)

Yes, my work Vista laptop has it's share of problems... many of them seem to be cause by either the Pointsec or the enforced use of "Symantec Endpoint Protection". When I'm on my home network, I can't even ssh/telnet to my NAS.

Anyway, this post is about it refusing to run Google Chrome... luckily Google search isn't firewalled, and it turned up the solution below -

http://palaniraja.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/google-chrome-the-application-failed-to-initialize-properly-0xc0000005/

Small pleasures

Would you believe the "CONNECT mail.agc.idv.tw:25 HTTP/1.0" finally stopped being logged on Sept 05 :)

Spammers

Everybody hates spammers... at least I do, and with a passion. Any small form of revenge I find greatly satisfying. In the logs of my lighthttp server, I see this -

118.168.140.161 - - [31/Aug/2008:09:39:02 +0100] "CONNECT mail.agc.idv.tw:25 HTTP/1.0" 501 357 "-" "-"

every two hours. I guess it's some form of hunt for open SMTP relays... but seriously, if they've tried every two hours for a month (hopefully without success), isn't it time to give up?

I feel like writing a little server that fakes the behaviour of an SMTP server, and wastes some of their time and bandwidth... but I know it would waste more of my time than theirs... it seems we simply can't win against these vermin.

D-Link DNS-323 Easy Search Utility

Ok, I've had a DNS-323 NAS box for sometime now, and really like it. It works well, was good value, and provides lots of functions to keep you interested... particularly if you're willing to do some 'hacking'.

Right now I want to start using the bittorrent client on it (that was released together with a firmware update)... to install the bittorrent client you need to use D-Link's Easy Search Utility... and that's where the whine starts.

One of the main puposes of this utility is apparently to find and map the NAS drives in windows.

Why write an application that provides functions that already exist? Particularly if it doesn't work as well as the functions built into Windows/Linux etc already?

In my case, Windows (even a horribly firewalled Vista) can find the device through samba, and through directly specifying it's IP address. The drive can be mapped by right clicking, and map drive. The configuration web page can be accessed through any web browser...

The easy search utility isn't able to find the drive on my network...
It has a dialog box where you can enter the ip address... but apparently, this can only be used if it can already find the drive.

What is the point?

I think I'll give up on D-Link's bittorrent client, and use something freely available on the net... with a more sensible install procedure.

synergy binaries for solaris?

At work I use a Sun/Sparc/Solaris machine on a daily basis. Its not flexible or fast, but it's stable, and works.

Synergy is a great tool for using two computers with one mouse/keyboard. Unfortunately, like most open source products, they -

a. don't come with prebuilt binaries for Solaris/Sparc
b. damned hard to build successfully yourself (on Solaris)... and then, even if you do manage it, like in this case, they still won't run

If anyone knows where I can get prebuilt binaries for this.. let me know.

wintel

Occasionally I go with the flow, and buy a 'standard' HP media PC, with Vista pre-installed - hook it up to the TV and stereo and start exploring the change from broadcast to vodcast TV.
For a year things worked quite well... until HP & Windows update services decided to end my fun.

Both want to update my graphics driver Mobile Intel(R) 945 Express Chipset Family
from 7.14.10.1322 to 7.14.10.1461. Vista SP1 seems to have it as a requirement.

The new driver however, loses the TV settings (zoom mostly) after the computer wakes from standby... damn annoying.

So far, the working solution is to system restore prior to the upgrade, then run windows update, and hide the Intel driver update. Now it's time to sit and wait for intel's next release... or until I buy a LCD TV :)