Virtual Moving Day!

Well, I finally decided to do it!  I got my own website.  So, now comes the challenging part of moving it all to the new site.

So, please update your feeds and bookmarks to:

http://linuxsagas.digitaleagle.net/

And, if you have any suggestions on how I can make it better, please comment.  I apologize for the inconvenience.

Great Link: Choosing Colors

This page has moved.  Please update your links:
http://linuxsagas.digitaleagle.net/2011/01/14/great-link-choosing-colors/

In tinkering with my time tracking application, I needed to choose colors.  I found a couple of sites that helped with that.  I am not sure how well it turned out, but that is not the sites’ fault.  Here’s the links:

Great Link: GMail Security

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http://linuxsagas.digitaleagle.net/2011/01/14/great-link-gmail-security/

Email security is always very important.  The Google Operating System blog posted a great security checklist for GMail.  As suggested in the post, you can head on over to Google’s security list first, then wrap up with checking the final list of items in the post.

So, check out:

Google Operating System: Gmail’s Security Checklist

After all, you can’t have too much security consciousness out there.

2010 in review

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http://linuxsagas.digitaleagle.net/2011/01/03/2010-in-review/

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 30,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.

 

In 2010, there were 70 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 207 posts.

The busiest day of the year was October 21st with 166 views. The most popular post that day was Webex in Ubuntu 8.10.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were code.google.com, android-developers.blogspot.com, ubuntuforums.org, google.com, and funwithlinux.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for webex linux, webex ubuntu, linux ports in use, iso to usb linux, and ubuntu webex.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Webex in Ubuntu 8.10 February 2009
12 comments

2

Bootable ISO to USB Drive November 2008
2 comments

3

Linux Alternatives for OneNote October 2008
1 comment

4

WebDav and fstab September 2008
2 comments

5

Webex in Linux August 2008
1 comment

Sound Server Idea

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http://linuxsagas.digitaleagle.net/2010/12/28/sound-server-idea/

Yesterday, I ran across a product called a GuruPlug while reading the comments for this article.  I hadn’t heard of anything like this before, but it sounded like something our church could use.

Here is the thought:  Our church has been having issues with the sound equipment going out.  I wondered about using PulseAudio servers and clients to create a network of speakers throughout the auditorium.  Using GuruPlugs would provide a cheap computer to hook speakers into.

The GuruPlug appears to run a version of Debian Linux.  PulseAudio should run on that with no problems.  From what I can tell, it looks like it runs about $100.  Then, we would need a USB soundcard, maybe like this one.  One of the comments mentioned someone getting it to work on Ubuntu 9.10 with no problems.  Right now it is on sale for $17.  Then, all we need is a pair of speakers, maybe like these for $5.  This brings the whole client system to about $125, which isn’t too bad.

I found another person who looked like he was running PulseAudio on the GuruPlug: Linux Plug Computers as Music Servers.  Does anyone else have any thoughts?  Have you tried anything like this?  Do you know of other devices that are similar?

Google Code and Mylyn

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http://linuxsagas.digitaleagle.net/2010/12/28/google-code-and-mylyn/

Since I am using Eclipse with my Google Code projects(Project Shaphan & Project Sarah), I did some research to see if I could connect Mylyn and found this project: GoogleCode Mylyn Connector.

To install it, I had to add this URL to the install sites:

http://knittig.de/googlecode-mylyn-connector/update/

Then, it installs through the Eclipse installation tool.

Next, I added a repository with the “New Task” menu on the right side of the Tasks view.  This walks through the wizard.

  • Step 1: Select repository type: Google Code
  • Step 2: Repository Settings
    • Project URL: http://code.google.com/p/project-shaphan/
    • Label: Project Shaphan (I believe this is the label you will see on the category)
    • Unchecked “Anonymous” (since I am the owner of the project)
    • entered user name and password
    • clicked “Validate Settings”
    • Clicked Finish
  • Yes to create a new query
  • Use a predefined query — All open issues

For some reason, I get the following error: “could not execute query”.  Then, I found this Issue.  The solution is to use the regular Google Account user name and password that you would use to login to GMail as opposed to one you would use to connect via SVN.

WebGL

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http://linuxsagas.digitaleagle.net/2010/12/27/webgl/

I just noticed in the release notes for Chrome the mention of Web GL .  So, I looked up some instructions to enable it.

I am running Ubuntu Linux, and I installed Chrome from the Deb package.  It created a shortcut in my Applications Menu.  So, I went to the menu editor, and edited the shortcut for Chrome.  I changed the shortcut from this:

/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome %U

to this:

/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome –enable-webgl %U

When I first started this post, the examples that I found didn’t work.  But, when I tried tonight, this example actually worked.

Resources

SuperTuxKart

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http://linuxsagas.digitaleagle.net/2010/12/18/supertuxkart/

Ok, time for a quick break.  I saw SuperTuxKart had a new version, and I wanted to try it out a long time ago.   I never could get it to compile — there was a dependency that I only saw in Windows.  When I got the SourceForge newsletter recently, it reminded me to check again.  They have a Mac version for download, so maybe it will work.

Packages I installed for dependencies:

configure: error: cannot find useable OpenAL installation. You need to install OpenAL.

libopenal-dev

checking for library containing ov_open… noconfigure: error: cannot find useable Ogg Vorbis installation. You need to install libogg and libvorbis.

libogg-dev, libvorbis-dev

configure: error: Can’t find irrlicht installation in standard prefixes, use –with-irrlicht…

libirrlicht-dev, libirrlicht1.7

Finally, all the packages are installed.  Now, “./configure”. Next, run “make”.

Now, it tested fine with “./src/supertuxkart”.

Since, it worked, I did “sudo make install” to install it.

Tip: Uploading to Google Code

I learned this the hard way: put a version number in your Google Code releases!

I kept receiving an error when I tried to upload my new Jar file.  It was the same 403 error as this person.  The problem is that you can’t overwrite files any more.  Each new download needs to have it’s own unique file name.

So, the easy fix is to include and incrementing version number in the file name.

From Ant, I was able to accomplish the version number is this manner:

  • I created a version.txt to hold a minor number and major number property — saves the version
  • In the destfile parameter of the Jar step, I use the ${major.number} and ${minor.number} properties in the file name.
  • In the release section, I use the propertyfile command to increment the version number

Here is the full Ant Build file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?><project default="all" name="Create Runnable Jar for Project ProjectShaphan">    <target name="all" depends="clean,compile,create_run_jar"/>
 <target name="clean">       <delete dir="bin"/>    </target>
 <target name="compile">       <mkdir dir="bin"/>       <javac destdir="bin">          <src path="src"/>          <classpath>             <pathelement path="/home/skp/app/workspaces/pscompare/ProjectJob/demo-bin"/>          	<fileset dir="lib">          		<include name="**/*.jar"/>          	</fileset>          </classpath>       </javac>    </target>
 <target name="create_run_jar">    <!--this part was created by Eclipse Runnable JAR Export Wizard-->    <!--ANT 1.7 is required                                        -->        <property file="./version.txt"/>        <jar destfile="project-shaphan-${major.number}.${minor.number}.jar" filesetmanifest="mergewithoutmain">            <manifest>                <attribute name="Built-By" value="${user.name}"/>                <attribute name="Main-Class" value="com.skp.shaphan.ShaphanApp"/>                <attribute name="Class-Path" value="."/>            </manifest>            <fileset dir="bin"/>            <zipfileset excludes="META-INF/*.SF" src="lib/derby.jar"/>            <zipfileset excludes="META-INF/*.SF" src="lib/sqljdbc4.jar"/>            <zipfileset excludes="META-INF/*.SF" src="lib/ojdbc6.jar"/>            <zipfileset excludes="META-INF/*.SF" src="lib/grouplayout.jar"/>            <zipfileset excludes="META-INF/*.SF" src="lib/iText-2.1.7.jar"/>            <zipfileset excludes="META-INF/*.SF" src="lib/iText-rtf-2.1.7.jar"/>            <zipfileset excludes="META-INF/*.SF" src="lib/iText-rups-2.1.7.jar"/>            <zipfileset excludes="META-INF/*.SF" src="lib/mysql-connector-java-5.1.7-bin.jar"/>            <zipfileset excludes="META-INF/*.SF" src="lib/ProjectJob.jar"/>            <zipfileset excludes="META-INF/*.SF" src="lib/jtds-1.2.5.jar"/>        </jar>    </target>
 <target name="release">         <taskdef classname="net.bluecow.googlecode.ant.GoogleCodeUploadTask" classpath="lib/ant-googlecode-0.0.2.jar" name="gcupload"/>        <property file="./version.txt"/><gcupload         username="${google.code.username}"         password="${google.code.password}"         projectname="project-shaphan"         filename="project-shaphan-${major.number}.${minor.number}.jar"         targetfilename="project-shaphan-${major.number}.${minor.number}.jar"         summary="Runnable Jar File"        labels="Featured, Jar, OpSys-All" />        <propertyfile file="./version.txt">	   <entry key="minor.number" type="int" operation="+" value="1" pattern="00"/>        </propertyfile>    </target></project>

 

Sword Bible on Android

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http://linuxsagas.digitaleagle.net/2010/12/12/sword-bible-on-android/

I have been using the Sword Bible project for years, and so, it was only natural for me to ask if it exists on Android for my phone.  The short story is that a project exists at Google Code, but it doesn’t quite look like it is ready for prime time.

First, if you want to know a little more about the Sword project, you can read up on it at this Wikipedia article.  I think I first started with it when I bought a Bible program from our college bookstore.  Now, in Linux, I use a program called Xiphos, which is a Linux/Gnome frontend for the Sword Project.  The program used to be called Gnome Sword.  You can also find more information from the main Sword Website including a small list of sofware.

My first find was this post on Werx Limited.  The post mentions a project named Bishop, but that project is more of a tech test than an actual application for use.  So, I read through the whole conversation thread discussing Bishop and the development of an application.  To my delight, I hit Martin Denham’s message about his And-Bible project.

I haven’t had a chance to install it or anything.  For now, I just wanted to capture these links, but I hope to mess with it some more.  For now, I am just using Virtue Bible FE.  I will keep you updated.