Stream Video from SMB Shares

This is the easy way to stream video to your Ipad. My files are stored on an Ubuntu computer, but this should work just as well with Windows. All you have to do is make sure that your videos are shared and publicly accessible.

Video playback with ExPlayer HD

Download ExPlayer HD from the App Store (it’s $4.99). ExPlayer will let you browse through samba shares and stream most videos. I’ve found that it works great with most SD content, but hiccups a bit with files over 500 megs and HD files. But the hiccups are pretty minor and they don’t interrupt the videos too much.

Stream Video from a UPNP Server

If you have problems with video playback quality, setting up a UPNP server is a more robust way to handle video. I haven’t spent much time setting up a Windows UPNP server but apparently it can be done with XBMC. I use MediaTomb on an Ubuntu server and I’m really happy with the results. It’s also really easy to set up.

Browsing UPNP with Buzz Player

I use Buzz Player HD ($3.99) on the Ipad to view UPNP video. It seems to crash a little bit more than ExPlayer does, but every time it’s crashed on me I’ve been able to open the app again and view the same file without any issues.

Buzz Player HD video playback

Conclusion

Overall, both ways work pretty well. Video playback is great with both apps, although so far I like Buzz Player a little better.

You no doubt played this game in the eighties, but did you know that there was a full-length Pac-Man album? This obscure picture disc reveals what Pac-Man’s voice sounded like, and you might be surprised:

Welcome to the magic land of Pac-Man

It also has some strange music and short skits, featuring The Pac-Man and the Ghosts, with strange eighties synths and bizarre voice acting.

Pac-Man Picture Disc

The audio clips above are just a few samples  - there’s lots more weirdness to be found here. You can buy a copy from this guy.

After upgrading to the newest version of Launchy, it started to crash at seemingly random times. I’m using version 2.5.0 on Windows Vista 64. I tried this solution with no luck. Eventually I came across a comment that said to simply disable the Controly plugin.

Epson Perfection V600

Epson Perfection V600 with XSANE

The V600 doesn’t work right out of the box, but it’s easy to set up. Just download and install ImageScan, a complete scanning program. It also installs drivers that lets you use SANE, both the from the XSANE GUI and from the command line.

The ImageScan interface

ImageScan is a clean and easy-to-use program, and so far I actually prefer it to the cluttered XSANE interface. The V600 seems to be fully operational, and I was able to scan at resolutions of up to 6400dpi. The only caveat is that when scanning at high resolutions, you are limited to a much smaller scanning area. You may need to do several smaller scans and then assemble the images afterwards.

Amazon.com and Newegg both currently have the V600 for around $200.

Epson Perfection V600

Docked Lenovo laptop

If you’re looking for a Lenovo laptop, Amazon.com has pretty decent prices on them.

The scripts require disper to work:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

add the following lines

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/wvengen/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/wvengen/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main

Save and exit the file

Update the source list using the following command

sudo apt-get update

Install disper using the following command:

sudo apt-get install disper


You can get the scripts from github:
git clone git@github.com:learntechblog/Lenovo-Monitor-Scripts.git

The scripts will probably work on other laptops as well, although I’ve only tested them with Lenovo laptops.

If you don’t already have a D90, I recommend getting one of the kits from Amazon. This one will get you everything you need, but if you have the cash, you should probably spring for something like this kit with the 18-200 lens.  Either way you’ll probably spend $1000 – $1500.

Nikon D90 & Ubuntu laptop

Anyway, the Nikon D90 works great, right out of the box, with Karmic. Just plug in the USB cable and it will offer to start F-Spot, a great photo manager.

When F-Spot starts, it will quickly scan your camera for images, and then show a dialog that lets you choose which photos to import.  It lets you easily tag photos, and organizes them by date, tag, and import session. The photo browser is responsive and attractive, and really easy to use.

The F-Spot photo browser

One of the cooler features of F-Spot is non-destructive editing — when you edit a photo, it creates a copy and works from there, saving the original so that you can always go back. This means that you can safely edit your photos without worry, since the original will be unchanged.

Viewing an individual photo

Although I don’t have much experience with it, RAW images are fully supported via UFRaw. You’ll probably need to install it first.  You can do that from the Software Center, or just type this command into a terminal:

sudo apt-get install ufraw

After that go into F-Spot, hit Edit -> Manage Extensions -> Tools, and Enable “DevelopInUFRaw”.

That pretty much covers all the basics. If you know what you’re doing, you can get just the camera body from Amazon.com.  Most people will probably want to start with a kit though.

Tamarindo Beach, Costa Rica

This one is a little busy for desktop wallpaper, but I still like it.

Rincon de la Vieja National Park, Costa Rica

I was worried that this one wouldn’t turn out – it was much darker than I had hoped.  But that actually makes it a better background since it isn’t as distracting.

Arundel Castle

This one might be a little too busy for a desktop background, but the colors are so awesome I still use it every once in a while.

The Lookout Spot

Cairo

Desert Outpost

Luxor Temple

Typical output from cat /proc/cpuinfo

From the output in the image above, we can see that the cpu is an 800 mhz Pentium III, with a 256k cache.  This command should work on nearly any standard Linux system, whether it’s Ubuntu, Suse, or just about any other flavor.

You’ll want to start with a folder with nothing in it but the images that you want to edit.  Make a folder inside your images folder, called “edited”.

A folder with some images in it

First, you’ll want to create an echo statement. This lets you preview what your one-liner is going to do.

for i in `ls *.JPG`; do echo "convert -resize 500 $i edited/$i"; done


This should give you some output like this:
convert -resize 500 DSC_0257.JPG edited/DSC_0257.JPG
convert -resize 500 DSC_0258.JPG edited/DSC_0258.JPG
convert -resize 500 DSC_0259.JPG edited/DSC_0259.JPG


Let’s break down this output.  We’re seeing three “convert” commands – one for each image in the folder. Convert is the main ImageMagick program. The first argument is “-resize 500″, which tells convert to resize a file to 500 pixels. That’s followed by the original filename, and then the output file.

The first “echo” step is important – especially if you’re new to using the command line – so you can check what your commands will do before you run them.  If the commands look right, now you can remove the “echo” part (along with the quotes, which tell the echo command exactly what to print):
for i in `ls *.JPG`; do convert -resize 500 $i edited/$i; done

Your “edited” folder should now have copies of your images, resized to 500 pixels.

If imagemagick isn’t installed, you can install it on an Ubuntu system by typing
sudo apt-get install imagemagick