PLA Tech Notes

My MythTV Recording Stats

2012-02-16T20:05:00.000-05:00

Here are my MythTV recording stats. This spans almost 2 years. During this period I dropped Cable TV. My stats should look allot different next year. I plan on moving to MythTV .25 in May 2012. I'll probably not bother saving and restoring the database.

Number of shows:: 266
Number of episodes:: 3994
First recording:: Friday May 14th, 2010
Last recording:: Thursday February 16th, 2012
Total Running Time:: 1 year 9 months 3 days 16 hrs 14 mins
Total Recorded:: 6 months 29 days 24 mins
Percent of time spent recording:: 8%

Title	Recorded	Last Recorded	#	Title	Recorded	Last Recorded
Shows				Channels
NBC Nightly News	597	February 16 2012	1	WCBD-HD	1906	February 16 2012
Today	533	February 16 2012	2	WCSC HD TV	1191	February 15 2012
Late Show With David Letterman	433	February 15 2012	3	WTAT-FO	302	February 14 2012
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon	418	February 16 2012	4	WCIV-TV	180	February 15 2012
Live 5 News This Morning	244	February 7 2012	5	WCSC SD 2	14	November 12 2011
NFL Football	167	January 22 2012	6	WMMP-MY	14	January 25 2012
The Colbert Report	103	February 3 2011	7	ETV	14	February 12 2012
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	91	February 1 2011	8	WCBD-DT	4	September 15 2011
60 Minutes	62	February 12 2012	9	ETVW	3	November 27 2011
NCIS	60	February 14 2012	10	SCC	3	January 31 2012
The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson	54	January 7 2012	11
Saturday Night Live	52	February 11 2012	12
The Mentalist	51	February 9 2012	13
The Middle	50	February 15 2012	14
College Football	44	January 2 2012	15
House	41	February 13 2012	16
Chuck	40	January 27 2012	17
Fringe	39	February 10 2012	18
NCIS: Los Angeles	38	February 14 2012	19
American Idol	36	January 22 2012	20
Cougar Town	35	February 14 2012	21
Live 5 News at 5	32	December 14 2011	22
30 Rock	32	February 9 2012	23
Raising Hope	32	February 14 2012	24
Burn Notice	27	June 22 2011	25
The Office	23	October 27 2011	26
Football Night in America	22	January 1 2012	27
The Good Wife	22	January 29 2012	28
The Event	21	May 23 2011	29
Blue Bloods	20	February 10 2012	30
Two and a Half Men	17	February 13 2012	31
The Simpsons	16	January 15 2012	32
Up All Night	16	February 9 2012	33
Hot in Cleveland	15	February 16 2011	34
Rescue Me	14	August 31 2010	35
The Good Guys	14	December 10 2010	36
Rock Center With Brian Williams	14	January 30 2012	37
The Closer	13	January 3 2011	38
Detroit 1-8-7	12	March 15 2011	39
Prime Suspect	12	January 22 2012	40
College Basketball	12	February 12 2012	41
The Chicago Code	11	May 23 2011	42
NFL Preseason Football	11	September 1 2011	43
Panthers Huddle	11	November 12 2011	44
Whitney	11	December 8 2011	45
MLB Baseball	10	June 25 2011	46
NASCAR Racing	10	September 10 2011	47
The NFL Today	9	January 22 2012	48
The Cape	8	February 28 2011	49
Fox NFL Sunday	8	January 8 2012	50

Happy 2 Year Anniversary

2012-01-15T08:33:00.000-05:00

Two years ago today I received my HTC Nexus One by Google. I've used it every day since. It is a great device. Mine is warn but still going strong.

I ordered the phone site unseen over the web. No wireless carrier to deal with. It was a great experience. Too bad Google closed their store a few months later.

Since January 15, 2010 I have:

Listened to approximately 1000 hours of podcasts
Listened to approximately 1000 hours of music
Logged 283 jogging tracks spanning 1,126 miles
Had over 1400 text message conversations
Snapped 100s of photos
Traveled over 50,000 (I'm skeptical of this stat from Google Latitude)
Purchased music
Watched videos
Scheduled appointments
Sent and received thousands of email messages
Surfed the web
Read a couple of books
Sent out dozens of crap alerts
Edited documents
Recorded audio
Tuned guitars
Navigated to new destinations
Checked sports scores
Analyzed networks
Tweeted and dented 100s of microblog messages
Dropped it many times
Broken the glass twice. HTC service rocks
Gotten caught in the rain with it
Oh yeah, I almost forgot... I've made and received a few phone calls

The only issue I've had with the Nexus One is low internal storage. This requires me to do a little more app management than I would prefer but it is no big deal.

If I had to do it all over again I would not change a thing. The Nexus One may be the most useful devices I've ever owned!

Google Reader Feed Checker

2011-12-17T20:40:00.000-05:00

I wrote this web app to check for possible dead Google Reader feeds.

To get started, download your Google Reader subscriptions and upload the file using the file uploader. The app will check each feed returning the number of entries and the last date. If an error is found an X will be by the feed. Hover over the X to display the error message. Check the feed manually before un-subscribing the feed from Google Reader.

http://pla1.net/GoogleReaderFeedChecker/

GWT - Position Popup To Current Mouse Position

2011-08-22T20:36:00.000-04:00

It took me a while to stumble upon how to position my popup at the current mouse position so I thought I'd share it.

Watch a folder and send images to your Google Plus Instant Upload album

2011-08-05T21:47:00.001-04:00

The bash script below will watch the PicasaWeb folder in your home directory for new files. When a new image is dropped in the folder it is uploaded to the Google Plus Instant Upload Picasa album. After the upload is complete the script launches your browser to your Google Plus photos. It also starts a Gwibber widget. If you want dent, or tweet the image URL.


#!/bin/sh
# Blog post: http://platechnotes.patrickarchibald.com/2011/08/watch-folder-and-send-images-to-your.html
# 1. Watch ~/PicasaWeb folder. 
# 2. Upload new file to Picasa using Google CLI. 
# 3. Launch the browser to Google Plus photos URL. 
# 
WATCHED_DIR=~/PicasaWeb
googleVersion=$(google --version)
echo $googleVersion
while [ 1 ]
do
  echo 'Watching directory: '$WATCHED_DIR 'for new files'
  while file=$(inotifywait -q -e create "$WATCHED_DIR" --format "%f")
  do
    echo 'New file to upload to PicasaWeb:' $file
    notify-send -i "gtk-go-up" "Picasa Web Monitor" "Uploading image $file"
    mythtvosd --template=alert --alert_text="Uploading image $file"
    google picasa post --title "Instant Upload" "$WATCHED_DIR/$file"
    if [ "$googleVersion" = "google 0.9.5" ]; then
     url=$(google picasa list url-direct --title "Instant Upload" | grep "$file" | sed -e "s/$file\,//g")
    else 
     url=$(google picasa list --fields url-direct --title "Instant Upload" | grep "$file" | sed -e "s/$file\,//g")
    fi
    echo 'Picasa url: ' $url
    notify-send -i "gtk-home" "Picasa Web Monitor" "Image uploaded. Starting Gwibber and going to G+"
    xdg-open https://plus.google.com/photos/fromphone
    python ~/Ubuntu\ One/scripts/gwibber-widget.py $url
  done
done

Prerequisites and Instructions

You should be running Linux. I am using Ubuntu
You need the command inotifywait. On Ubuntu I installed it via sudo apt-get install inotify-tools
You must have a Picasa account
Install libnotify-bin for the notify-send command
Install Google CLI
Create "PicasaWeb" folder in your home directory mkdir ~/PicasaWeb
Copy and paste my bash script above into a file. I named mine PicasaWebMonitor.sh.
Make PicasaWebMonitor.sh executable chmod +x PicasaWebMonitor.sh
Start the bash script ./PicasaWebMonitor.sh.
Create some images and save them to the ~/PicasaWeb folder
Avoid using spaces and special characters in your picture file names. The Picasa Web direct URL will be encoded and won't match your file name. The grep statement will fail to show you the direct URL.

Let me know if you find any bugs in this script or if there is a better way to do it.

Join Me On Google Plus

2011-07-17T23:06:00.000-04:00

Create Images Of Identi.ca Messages

2011-07-17T10:25:00.000-04:00

I created a web utility to create an image of Identi.ca messages, also known as dents. The images can be used when referencing Identi.ca messages in other systems such as Google Plus. To create an image you will need to know the numeric notice id. The format of the URL is: http://dentimage.com/notice-id-goes-here.png

Below is an image of Evan Prodromou's first dent. The URL for this image is: http://dentimage.com/1.png

To get the notice id for a dent find the dent on Identi.ca and click on or hover above the time the dent was published. You will see the numeric notice-id. That number is what you need to insert into this URL http://dentimage.com/notice-id-goes-here.png

StatusNet instances other than Identi.ca can be used by specifying the hostName parameter. The following are valid parameter names: h, hostName, host, and instance. For example: http://dentimage.com/408450.png?h=brainbird.net

If you have any comments please dent me at @pla1

Official StatusNet Desktop Client Update Experience

2011-06-25T14:14:00.000-04:00

It had been a while since I'd used the official StatusNet desktop client. I was prompted with a software update notification. The upgrade went off without a hitch. Version 0.9.1 looks good and is responsive. See screen shots below.

XBMC Live TV with HDHomeRun

2011-01-09T18:17:00.000-05:00

To watch live TV in XBMC using your HDHomeRun you need to configure your channels. You will need to create a text file containing a URI to each HDHomeRun channel. Here is an example URI: hdhomerun://1019DD95-1/tuner1?channel=8vsb:50&program=1. You then add a Video source in XBMC by pointing to the directory containing the text files you created.

Below is a graphic on composing the URI. The screenshot is of the HDHomeRun configuration tool on my Ubuntu system.

I put my files in a directory called "Live TV" in my Videos directory. Here is a screen shot of those files:

Below is a screenshot of what the channel line up looks like in XBMC.

Checking-In at GetGlue with MythTV

2010-12-24T09:08:00.000-05:00

GetGlue is a leading social network for entertainment. Fans use GetGlue apps to check-in while consuming entertainment to share with friends. I wrote a Python script that enables MythTV to automatically check-in to GetGlue with the recording you are watching.

GetGlue provides an application programming interface (API) that uses OAuth for authorization.

NOTE/RANT: I don't think I'm supposed to share my oAuth developer keys. I don't know how the architects of oAuth expected us to deliver scripts. I guess they assume everything would be web based. Until someone tells me different I'm not going to release my oAuth keys. So, I guess you'll need to apply for developer keys and plug them in to my python script.
To obtain a GetGlue developer key, please e-mail api@getglue.com with your name, company name, app name, and OAuth callback (not needed for this), as well as a short description of the application.

Below are the high level steps to get this working and its accompanying video tutorial. These steps were performed on an Ubuntu 10.04 MythTV frontend PC.

Download my python script.

Apply and receive developer keys from emailing a request to api@getglue.com. See rant above.

Copy and paste your oAuth developer keys in my script variables CONSUMER_KEY and CONSUMER_SECRET.

Install Python Setup tools - sudo apt-get install python-setuptools

Download and install OAuth library. - sudo python setup.py

Authorize the app one time in a terminal - python MythTVGetGlueCheckin4.py testtest

Copy the OAuth token file in to the mythtv user's directory. sudo cp ~/.MythTVGetGlueCheckin /home/mythtv/.

Change owner to mythtv user. sudo chown mythtv /home/mythtv/.MythTVGetGlueCheckin

Change group to mythtv user. sudo chown mythtv /home/mythtv/.MythTVGetGlueCheckin

Set MythTV system event - Playback started

Watch some TV recordings and MythTV will automatically check-in to GetGlue. See my GetGlue profile for an example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_vWfWa7Ls0

SunRay vs Chrome OS Notebook

2010-12-18T15:55:00.000-05:00

I'm just thinking out loud. Does a Chrome OS like device have a place in the enterprise?

I received a free Google Chrome OS Notebook December 14, 2010. I like it. It has provoked a comparison of Chrome OS like devices to my employer's SunRay thin client deployment that I helped put together. The infrastructure behind our SunRay deployment is pretty heavy. There are Solaris SunRay server blades, Windows terminal server blades, Active Directory blades, file server blades, storage area network, SunRay thin clients, keyboards, mice, etc... Could we replaced all that with Chrome OS Notebook like devices? We already use Google Apps for email, instant messaging, documents, spreadsheets, and wiki. We have an evolving Intranet. There are several employees working exclusively in the browser now. If we continue to move everything to our Intranet and find a remote desktop solution for the remaining applications, we are there. Our SunRay environment shines in security, mobility, and zero client maintenance. Flash and video playback on the SunRay is painful. A Chrome OS device competes with the SunRay's security and has zero client maintenance. SunRay has a slight edge in the session mobility category. We can take our SunRay card and move to any station picking up right were we left off. A Chrome OS device beats the SunRay on video playback.

What do you think the possibilities are of a Chrome OS like device working its way in to your enterprise?

Latest Is Not Always The Greatest

2010-11-24T19:28:00.000-05:00

Sometimes the latest technology is not the greatest. Below is a picture of a fluorescent light bulb that was minutes away from catching on fire. Had I left the house with this light powered on I would have lost all my belongings to a fire.

Sending Identi.ca Countdown Messages

2010-10-31T09:37:00.000-04:00

If you following me on Identi.ca you'll occasionally see some of my daily count down messages. For example right now I'm running a daily count down message to the Charleston Bar Camp. Here is my message from Sunday October 31, 2010: "13 days until BarCamp Charleston Sat Nov 13 2010 #barcampchs". I am also running a reverse countdown since my Nexus One mobile phone was sent off to repair. Here is that message as of October 31, 2010: "5 days since I sent my !NexusOne to @htc for repair. What is taking so long? !Android http://is.gd/gj3Mn".

I send these automated microblog messages by adding cron job entries that call a python script. I pass the python script two parameters the reference date in yyyymmdd format and the message to be sent.

Below is the cron job entries in my system as of this writing:

cron

# m h  dom mon dow   command
1       0       *       *       *       python /home/htplainf/Ubuntu\ One/scripts/dentcountdown.py 20101113 "BarCamp Charleston Sat Nov 13 2010 #barcampchs"
1       0       *       *       *       python /home/htplainf/Ubuntu\ One/scripts/dentcountdown.py 20101026 'I sent my !NexusOne to @htc for repair. What is taking so long? !Android http://is.gd/gj3Mn'

Below is the python script I wrote to send these countdown messages.

Python script


#!/usr/bin/python
# Python script to send a countdown message to Identi.ca 
#
# Pass a date in yyyymmdd format along with some text for your message. 
# Example: python dentcountdown.py 20100611 "SouthEast LinuxFest"


import sys
import httplib, urllib
from datetime import datetime, date, time
import base64

username = "YourUserNameGoesHere"
password = "YourSecretPasswordGoesHere"
date_format = "%Y%m%d"
today = datetime.today()
targetDate = datetime.strptime(sys.argv[1], date_format)
delta = targetDate - today
days = delta.days + 1

if days == -1: 
 verb = " day since " 
elif days == 1: 
 verb = " day until " 
elif days < 0: 
 verb = " days since " 
else: verb = " days until "
if days == 0:
 message = sys.argv[2] + " is today"
else: message = str(abs(days)) + verb + sys.argv[2]
params = urllib.urlencode({'status': message})
base64string = base64.encodestring('%s:%s' % (username, password))[:-1]
authorizationString = "Basic " + base64string
headers = {"Content-type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded","Accept": "text/plain", "Authorization" : authorizationString}
connection = httplib.HTTPConnection("identi.ca")
connection.request("POST", "/api/statuses/update.xml", params, headers)
response = connection.getresponse()
print response.status, response.reason

NETGEAR Powerline Ethernet Adapter vs CAT5e

2010-10-28T19:57:00.000-04:00

I compared local area network bandwidth between the NETGEAR Powerline Ethernet Adapter model XAVB101 and CAT5e with gigabit Ethernet switches. I conducted 6 tests, 3 on each transmission medium. I used the commonly used network testing tool iperf. Bottom line: Pull CAT5e wire or better when feasible.

Below is a table of the bandwidth results.

CAT5e	Powerline Ethernet
637 Mbits/sec	73.4 Mbits/sec
629 Mbits/sec	74.0 Mbits/sec
612 Mbits/sec	74.5 Mbits/sec

My tests were conducted to favor the Powerline Ethernet adapter. I placed the two Powerline Ethernet adapters within 8 feet of each other in the same room. No extension cords were involved. The CAT5e circuit was a couple of hundred feet and include 2 Ethernet switches between the computers.

Here is the raw output from the iperf command:

Ethernet Over Power

htplainf@fe0:~$ iperf -c 192.168.1.5
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.5, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 192.168.1.6 port 34985 connected with 192.168.1.5 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.2 sec  88.9 MBytes  73.4 Mbits/sec
htplainf@fe0:~$ iperf -c 192.168.1.5
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.5, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 192.168.1.6 port 34986 connected with 192.168.1.5 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.1 sec  89.0 MBytes  74.0 Mbits/sec
htplainf@fe0:~$ iperf -c 192.168.1.5
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.5, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 192.168.1.6 port 34987 connected with 192.168.1.5 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.1 sec  90.2 MBytes  74.5 Mbits/sec



CAT5

htplainf@fe0:~$ iperf -c 192.168.1.5
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.5, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 192.168.1.6 port 41387 connected with 192.168.1.5 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec    760 MBytes    637 Mbits/sec
htplainf@fe0:~$ iperf -c 192.168.1.5
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.5, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 192.168.1.6 port 41388 connected with 192.168.1.5 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec    750 MBytes    629 Mbits/sec
htplainf@fe0:~$ iperf -c 192.168.1.5
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.5, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 192.168.1.6 port 41469 connected with 192.168.1.5 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec    729 MBytes    612 Mbits/sec
htplainf@fe0:~$

Here are the specs on the Ethernet adapter in the client computer. Notice it has negotiated at a gig with the Ethernet switch.

htplainf@fe0:~$ sudo ethtool eth0
[sudo] password for htplainf: 
Settings for eth0:
 Supported ports: [ MII ]
 Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
                         100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
                         1000baseT/Full 
 Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
 Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
                         100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
                         1000baseT/Full 
 Advertised pause frame use: No
 Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
 Link partner advertised link modes:  Not reported
 Link partner advertised pause frame use: No
 Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: No
 Speed: 1000Mb/s
 Duplex: Full
 Port: MII
 PHYAD: 3
 Transceiver: external
 Auto-negotiation: on
 Supports Wake-on: g
 Wake-on: g
 Link detected: yes

Here are the specs on the Ethernet adapter in the client computer when connected to the Powerline adapter. Notice it has negotiated at 100Mb/s.

htplainf@fe0:~$ sudo ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
 Supported ports: [ MII ]
 Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
                         100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
                         1000baseT/Full 
 Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
 Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 
                         100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 
                         1000baseT/Full 
 Advertised pause frame use: No
 Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
 Link partner advertised link modes:  Not reported
 Link partner advertised pause frame use: No
 Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: No
 Speed: 100Mb/s
 Duplex: Full
 Port: MII
 PHYAD: 3
 Transceiver: external
 Auto-negotiation: on
 Supports Wake-on: g
 Wake-on: g
 Link detected: yes

Android Harmony Remote with GoogleTV on a Nexus One

2010-10-23T07:40:00.000-04:00

Below are screenshots of the Harmony Remote on an Android Nexus one. I'm using the app with a Logitech Revue GoogleTV set-top box. The app works great.

Terminator at my Fingertips

2010-10-21T22:18:00.000-04:00

I am big on keyboard shortcuts. For a couple of years now I've set Ctrl-Shift-o to start gnome-terminal. This works great. A little too great. I end up with a dozen gnome-terminal windows scattered across 4 workspaces. I decided to stop the madness. I installed Terminator and wrote the small bash script below. The script below will search for a Terminator session and if found bring it in to focus. If Terminator is not running it will start it.

#!/bin/bash 
if (wmctrl -l | grep Terminator); 
then 
 wmctrl -a Terminator; 
else
 terminator -T Terminator; 
fi

If you are using Ubuntu like me you can use the following command to install Terminator and wmctrl.

sudo apt-get install terminator wmctrl

If you want to try this copy and paste the script to a file and make the file executable. Then use gconf-editor to set your keyboard shortcut to your script.

Identica Map - Real-Time Microblog Posts on a Google Map - Video Demo

2010-10-20T07:38:00.001-04:00

Below is a YouTube video demonstration of http://IdenticaMap.com. This web app displays microblogging messages from Identi.ca in real-time on a Google Map. The frequency of messages are sped-up in the video for dramatic affect. The music is Fat Chance Lester's "The Plot To Save The World". Video with created with a combination of ffmpeg for screen capture and Blender for video editing on Ubuntu 10.04 Linux operating system.

Identi.ca User Images

2010-10-17T16:31:00.000-04:00

I created a Java servlet to create PNG images of Identi.ca users. You can use this utility on your website or gmail signature. The servlet looks up the user via the Identi.ca API. It uses the user's preferred background and foreground colors. The PNG image includes the user's name, avatar, latest notice and notice date.

The URL is: http://identicamap.com/utils/UserImageServlet?q=userNameGoesHere.

Here are a few examples:

Identi.ca Map

2010-10-17T10:44:00.000-04:00

I created http://identicamap.com. This web app displays the Identi.ca public timeline on a Google Map with live updates. The app is GWT based. The backend is running on Tomcat 6 in a Linode VPS. In a separate thread, the dents from Identi.ca are received and stored in a MySQL table. The GWT app queries the database periodically for new dents with location information and displays them on the map.

Identi.ca Followers App - http://identicafollowers.com

2010-10-09T11:18:00.001-04:00

The Identi.ca web interface requires you scroll through your followers in increments of 20 per page. I wanted a way to display them all on one page. I wrote http://identicafollowers.com to do just that. It uses OAuth to gain access to your Identi.ca followers feed without asking for your credentials. The app is a GWT app running on Tomcat. It is hosted on a Linode virtual private server.

Apache Directive to Prevent Cache of GWT nocache.js File

2010-10-09T09:05:00.001-04:00

<LocationMatch (.*)nocache\.js$>
   Header Set Cache-Control "max-age=0, no-store"
</LocationMatch>

The Apache directive above will prevent the GWT nocache.js file from being cached. This is critical when you deploy new versions of your GWT apps. If the user does not get the latest version of your app, communication with the server will fail.

MediaInfo Command

2010-09-18T22:42:00.001-04:00

I demoed MythTV at the Charleston, SC Linux Users Group meeting September 18, 2010. One of the questions was how big are the files. MythTV doesn't show file sizes any where that I can see. You can run ls -l on the recordings directory but that is no fun. So, I combined some MySQL tables with the mediainfo command and created a spreadsheet. The mediainfo command provides all kind of information. See an example in the screen shot below.

Software Freedom Day September 18, 2010

2010-09-17T14:32:00.000-04:00

Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a celebration of free and open source software all over the world. Each team has their own separate event with separate organizers. CSCLUG's third year as a participant in the world wide Software Freedom day (www.softwarefreedomday.org)!

Place: West Ashley Muddy Waters Coffee House
Time: 1pm
Date: 2010-09-18

Drop by and visit. We will have the following activities and more.

*Announcement of Summer pyGames winners
*Check out an Android Dev Setup
*Myth TV Setup
*Demos of distributions, software programs, and more!

Map for West Ashley Muddy Waters Coffee House

View Larger Map

Watch a Folder and Upload New Files To Picasa

2010-09-11T16:22:00.005-04:00

The bash script below will watch the PicasaWeb folder in your home directory for new files. When a new image is dropped in the folder it is uploaded to Picasa. After the upload is complete the script launches your browser to the direct URL of the uploaded photo. If you want, copy the URL in an email, dent, or tweet.

Updated Dec 4, 2010 - Now checks Google CL version so it will work in Ubuntu 11.04.


#!/bin/sh
# Blog post: http://platechnotes.patrickarchibald.com/2010/09/watch-folder-and-upload-new-files-to.html
# 1. Watch ~/PicasaWeb folder. 
# 2. Upload new file to Picasa using Google CLI. 
# 3. Launch the browser to the direct Picasa URL. 
# 
WATCHED_DIR=~/PicasaWeb
googleVersion=$(google --version)
echo $googleVersion
while [ 1 ]
do
  echo 'Watching directory: '$WATCHED_DIR 'for new files'
  while file=$(inotifywait -q -e create "$WATCHED_DIR" --format "%f")
  do
    echo 'New file to upload to PicasaWeb:' $file
    notify-send -i "gtk-go-up" "Picasa Web Monitor" "Uploading image $file"
    mythtvosd --template=alert --alert_text="Uploading image $file"
    google picasa post --title "Drop Box" "$WATCHED_DIR/$file"
    if [ "$googleVersion" = "google 0.9.5" ]; then
     url=$(google picasa list url-direct --title "Drop Box" | grep "$file" | sed -e "s/$file\,//g")
    else 
     url=$(google picasa list --fields url-direct --title "Drop Box" | grep "$file" | sed -e "s/$file\,//g")
    fi
    echo 'Picasa url: ' $url
    notify-send -i "gtk-home" "Picasa Web Monitor" "Image uploaded. Starting Gwibber widget."
    mythtvosd --template=alert --alert_text="Image uploaded. Starting Gwibber widget."
    python ~/Ubuntu\ One/scripts/gwibber-widget.py $url
  done
done

Prerequisites and Instructions

You should be running Linux. I am using Ubuntu
You need the command inotifywait. On Ubuntu I installed it via sudo apt-get install inotify-tools
You must have a Picasa account
Install libnotify-bin for the notify-send command
Install Google CLI
Create a Picasa web folder called "Drop Box"
Create "PicasaWeb" folder in your home directory mkdir ~/PicasaWeb
Copy and paste my bash script above into a file. I named mine PicasaWebMonitor.sh.
Make PicasaWebMonitor.sh executable chmod +x PicasaWebMonitor.sh
Start the bash script ./PicasaWebMonitor.sh.
Create some images and save them to the ~/PicasaWeb folder
Avoid using spaces and special characters in your picture file names. The Picasa Web direct URL will be encoded and won't match your file name. The grep statement will fail to show you the direct URL.

Let me know if you find any bugs in this script or if there is a better way to do it.

Wake on LAN with 3 MythTV Frontends

2010-08-29T21:29:00.000-04:00

I have 3 MythTV frontends scattered throughout my house. I put together a script using wakeonlan and ssh to power the frontends on and off. Below is a video demonstration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82YQEdAmaws

Logitech diNovo Mini Keyboard Controlling MythTV, Boxee, and Ubuntu Desktop

2010-07-29T17:47:00.000-04:00

I've been trying out keyboards to control my home theater PCs. I think I've found the near perfect keyboard. My new favorite is the Logitech diNovo Mini. The only negatives are it doesn't have the F1, F2, F3, etc keys. I would prefer to have a dedicated key for the Esc (escape) instead of having to use a function key combination. This is a great keyboard. Check out my demonstration video below.

PS. I used the YouTube editor to splice the intro I made in Blender with the main content.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3jLyy39hBo

Video Streaming to Android Nexus One using VLC

2010-06-22T07:03:00.004-04:00

After reading a discussion on the MythTV Cast forum I explored VLC video steaming to my Android Nexus One. After some searching I found this helpful page. From that page I got VLC video streaming to my Nexus One working by doing the following:

I created a html page on my MythTV server called stream.html with the following contents:

 
<html>
<head>
VLC Streaming to Nexus One
</head> 
<body>
<h1>VLC Streaming to Nexus One</h1> 
<a href="rtsp://192.168.1.5:5554/stream.sdp">Stream</a>
</body>
</html>

I started an http server on my MythTV server using python -m SimpleHTTPServer. I started this command in the same directory I saved the stream.html file in.

I started the VLC streaming with the following single line command:


vlc  Hot_in_Cleveland_2010-06-16_10-00_PM_Pilot.mpg -I http --sout "#transcode{soverlay,ab=128,samplerate=44100,channels=2,acodec=mp4a,vcodec=h264,width=480,height=270,vfilter="canvas{width=480,height=270,aspect=16:9}",fps=25,vb=800,venc=x264{level=12,no-cabac,subme=20,threads=4,bframes=0,min-keyint=1,keyint=50}}:gather:rtp{mp4a-latm,sdp=rtsp://0.0.0.0:5554/stream.sdp}"

Then with my WiFi connected Nexus One I open the browser to http://192.168.1.5:8000/stream.html

I clicked on the stream link and watched the video file Hot_in_Cleveland_2010-06-16_10-00_PM_Pilot.mpg specified in the VLC command.

I've only got an standard definition recording to play so far. My HD recordings playback with a blank screen. I hear the audio. I'm sure there are some settings I need to tweak on the VLC command.

Below are the specs from the video as provided by the ffmpeg command.


Input #0, mpeg, from 'Hot_in_Cleveland_2010-06-16_10-00_PM_Pilot.mpg':
Duration: 00:29:57.80, start: 0.189267, bitrate: 5188 kb/s
Stream #0.0[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 480x480 [PAR 4:3 DAR 4:3], 6000 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc
Stream #0.1[0x1c0]: Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 384 kb/s



XBMC Mythbox
2010-06-19T21:36:00.000-04:00
XBMC Mythbox is a script that lets your XBMC home theater PC emulate a MythTV frontend. The features of release candidate 1 of Mythbox are very close to an actual MythTV frontend. You can edit your DVR schedule, play recordings, watch live TV, view the TV guide, and review upcoming recordings. The best feature of XBMC Mythbox is that it honors MythTV commercial flags. It allows the player to skip right over commercials. The Mythbox also resumes where you previously stopped  viewing a recording. Below is my video demonstration of XBMC Mythbox. 



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5E8KPalqPg

Tools used to create the video: 
Ubuntu Linux
Blender 3D graphics application
Blackmagic Pro video input adapter
MythTV
XBMC



Google CL
2010-06-18T22:08:00.002-04:00
I posted this from the command line. Check out googlecl


SouthEast LinuxFest 2010
2010-06-13T18:27:00.000-04:00
I thoroughly enjoyed the second annual SouthEast LinuxFest.  I met several of my on-line friends and gained a wealth of information from the sessions. A tip of the hat to all the hard working organizers and speakers. Great job!

This year the event was held at the Marriott at Renaissance Park hotel in Spartanburg, SC. In 2009 it was held at Clemson University.

The hotel accommodations were great. The Marriott had large meeting rooms and the staff seemed to be there when needed and invisible when they weren't needed.

There was a great crowd on hand for Saturday's events. The crowd on Sunday was slim. I think next year it should be Friday 1PM through Saturday evening. I would leave Sunday as a travel day.

The session schedule was varied and packed. There were 6 tracks on Saturday and many Birds of a Feather (BOF) meetings. Below is a list of the sessions I attended:

Friday afternoon - UbuCon: Jono Bacon, Rick Spencer and gang demoed Quickly, the python rapid development tool 
Saturday 9AM - Bradley Kuhn: GPLv3: Better Copyleft for Developers and Users
Saturday 10AM - Jon "Maddog" Hall: A Personal History of Free Software (see my video link below).
Saturday 11AM - Nick Owen: Securing your network with open-source technologies: Tips & Tricks
Saturday 1PM - Cat Allman: Getting Started in Free and Open Source
Saturday 2PM - Doug Vann: How Drupal is expanding the role of OpenSource in Government, Private Industry and Beyond!
Saturday 3PM - Michael DeHaan: Datacenter Automation Strategies With Puppet
Saturday 4PM - Jay Pfaffman: LTSP as a New Model of Ubiquitous Computing for Schools: Fact or Foolishness?
Sunday 9AM - Alan Hicks: Introduction to the 802.11 MAC
If you are interested in Linux/Free and Open Source Software I highly recommend attending SouthEast LinuxFest 2011. Stay tuned to the SouthEast LinuxFest website http://www.southeastlinuxfest.org. 

Here is a video clip I put together from my favorite SouthEast LinuxFest 2010 session. 



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb26slhtT1Q


Identi.ca and Twitter Updates on TV
2010-05-31T09:26:00.000-04:00
MythTV is a free open source home entertainment system. MythTV provides a hook to the On-Screen Display (OSD). With a little Python scripting you can display tweets and dents on the screen while your are watching recordings or live tv. It is interesting to read what the rest of the world thinks while you are watching an event on TV. Here are some use-cases for the microblogging On-Screen Display: 

Election return twitter feed
Popular TV show twitter feed
Sporting event twitter feed (see demo below)
Stock ticker
Weather alerts

Below are two video demonstrations of displaying microblog messages on my TV. The first video is during the 2010 NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 race with the search term "NASCAR". It displays search results from Identi.ca and Twitter. The second video is just displaying my personal Identi.ca and Twitter messages while watching an episode of SNL. 



 



 
Tweets and Dents while watching NASCAR Racing: Coca-Cola 600 2010
Tweets and Dents while watching SNL


Google To Stop Selling Handsets Online
2010-05-15T06:49:00.000-04:00
I am very disappointed to hear that Google will stop selling mobile phone handsets online. I purchased my Nexus One online and it was a great experience. Is Google being forced by the mobile carriers to cease and desist online sales? There are many of us that know what we want and prefer to purchase online. We don't need to touch the merchandise or have a sales rep hold our hand. Come on Google reverse this backwards decision. 




HTPCentric Podcast Episode 03 - MythTV
2010-05-06T21:12:00.000-04:00
I was a guest on the HTPCentric podcast Sunday May 2, 2010. We talked about MythTV the free and open source software digital video recorder (DVR) project. 

http://www.thedigitalmediazone.com/wp-content/uploads/htpcentric/htpcentric-ep03.mp3





Jabra CLIPPER Bluetooth Device
2010-04-29T22:18:00.000-04:00
Here is my demonstration video of the Jabra CLIPPER bluetooth device. The Jabra CLIPPER was made to clip on to your shirt and use headphones to listen to your music wirelessly. I'm going to use it a little differently. I have a 3.5mm audio jack on my car stereo that I will leave the Jabra CLIPPER bluetooth device connected to. This will enable me to listen to my music and podcasts on my Nexus One phone in my truck without connecting any wires. 



Video created with Blender on Ubuntu.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIraANiyOLg


Two Hummingbirds Feeding Together (Digitally)
2010-04-25T17:16:00.000-04:00
Hummingbirds are very territorial. They are always fighting each other off the feeder. I joined these two hummingbirds together digitally. I used the free open source 3D content creation suite Blender.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvV-USAvSxI


SouthEast LinuxFest Video
2010-04-25T17:04:00.000-04:00

I am looking forward to SouthEast LinuxFest 2010. Last year's fest was fun and informative. I took their promotional audio and built a video around it just for fun. I used the free open source 3D content creation suite Blender to create the video. 







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCuEtpN_OF0


Video Editing Workflow using Blender with AVCHD Files
2010-04-12T06:49:00.000-04:00
My Canon HF20 high-definition video camera creates AVCHD files with an extension of .MTS. I am using Blender as my video editor. My operating system is Ubuntu 9.10. This blog entry is to document my workflow. 

Blender does not handle AVCHD files well. The only solution I've found to work is to convert the video files into images and add the images to Blender as image sequences. Here is the mkdir and ffmpeg commands I use to convert the video files to jpg images. 
mkdir /tmp/00034
ffmpeg -i 00034.MTS 00034/image%d.jpg

Here is the command I use to play back the video during and after rendering. 
mplayer -vo vdpau  -vc ffh264vdpau -fps 60 -geometry 800x450 /tmp/0001_6579.avi

Here is a a video I created using this method. The video demos my Top 10 Android Live Wallpapers. 



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uow_6VhhsXw


Android ROCKS! Video
2010-04-10T17:41:00.000-04:00
I have a Nexus One mobile phone running the Android software stack. Together they ROCK! I put together a tribute video using open source software tools Blender and GIMP on Ubuntu 9.10. The video displays some of the applications that I use all the time on my Nexus One. The music is Joe Satriani's 
"I Just Wanna Rock". 



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RoOxq2ui_g


Interview with Wynn Godbold on Hacker Public Radio
2010-03-30T18:02:00.001-04:00
In episode 532 on Hacker Public Radio I interview my sister Wynn Godbold who recently starting using Ubuntu Linux. She is a kindergarten teacher in SC. We talk about Wynn's experience as a new Linux user. We also discuss open source software adoption in the education field. 


http://hackerpublicradio.org/eps/hpr0532.mp3





Cooper River Bridge Run 2010 - Processing for YouTube
2010-03-28T09:36:00.000-04:00
In a previous blog entry I touted that YouTube can process my camera's raw video files. Well it turns out that it doesn't always work. I uploaded some Cooper River Bridge Run videos and they played back at twice the speed. As a rule you don't want to convert your videos before processing. You never want a copy of a copy but this time I had no choice.
Here was my workflow for my Cooper River Bridge Run 2010 videos which can be found on my YouTube channel. My computer operating system is Ubuntu 9.10.

Charge camera batteries the day before the shoot
Pack gear. Include a collapsible chair.
Travel to site and find a good location. To avoid traffic, I parked my truck before the Cooper River Bridge and bicycled the rest of the way. 
Shoot video (on a tri-pod)
Return home and connect camera to PC via USB cable
Copy MTS AVCHD video files to PC
Search for and then download DRM-free music. I chose Cavanshawn on Jamendo. 
Review video clips
Concatenate video clips using the cat command. 
cat scene1.MTS scene2.MTS > bothscenes.MTS.
Use ffmpeg to combine the audio and transcode the video to something YouTube can handle consistently. 
ffmpeg -i bothscenes.MTS -i "/var/lib/mythtv/music/Cavashawn/02 Madison.mp3" -vcodec libxvid -b 18000k -shortest -deinterlace -s 1920x1080 -map 0:0 -map 1:0 bothscenes.avi
Copy the AVI file to a USB thumb drive
Make a trip to work to upload the video to YouTube. 
I usually set the videos to Private initially. If the video looks OK on YouTube I then change it to Public. The change from private to public is not immediate. So wait before you publicize. 
If you are wondering why I took a trip to work. I have a ATT DSL connection at home. The upload speed is 500kbps at best. Uploading a 3 minute video segment takes hours. If you make a mistake or YouTube fails a weekend project can turn in to a week long project. Upload speed matters when you are publishing video. 

My YouTube channel


Nikon D40X Flash Fix
2010-03-21T20:29:00.000-04:00
I was miffed last weekend when I went to take some photos of my kitchen demolition. The flash on my Nikon D40X camera wasn't working. After some searching it was apparent that many people have had the same issue. Thankfully in the sea of search results I ran across this video that demonstrates the fix. In the photo below I added a red arrow pointing to the problem area. The copper clip had fallen off the black plastic pedestal. The few steps to fix it were: 

Remove two screws on front of flash housing


Carefully remove the back off of the flash housing


Place the copper clip back on the plastic pedestal


Snap the rear of the flash housing back on carefully


Insert and tighten the two screws on the front of the flash housing


Have fun taking pictures in low light



Nikon D40X with the flash housing removed. Photo taken with my Google Nexus One. 



Gesture Search from Google Labs on a Nexus One
2010-03-07T16:24:00.001-05:00
Gesture Search from Google Labs lets you search your Android-powered device by drawing alphabet gestures on the touch screen. It allows you to quickly find a contact, a bookmark, an application, or a music track from hundreds or thousands of items, all in one place. It is fast and fun to use. Check out my demonstration video below. 



Google App Engine Java System Properties
2010-03-06T11:57:00.001-05:00
I use Google App Engine (GAE) to run http://oggcasts.com.  It is an excellent platform for building and running web apps. For historical purposes I'm listing the Google App Engine System Properties as of March 6, 2010. GAE is running a fairly recent version of Java. It will be interesting to see how frequent the Java version is updated. These properties were retrieved via
Properties properties = System.getProperties();


java.specification.version 1.6
java.vendor Sun Microsystems Inc.
line.separator 
java.class.version 50.0
java.util.logging.config.file WEB-INF/logging.properties
com.google.appengine.runtime.version 1.3.1
java.specification.name Java Platform API Specification
java.vendor.url http://java.sun.com/
java.vm.version 1.6.0_13
os.name Linux
java.version 1.6.0_13
java.vm.specification.version 1.0
user.dir /base/data/home/apps/oggcasts/16.340323898686711564
java.specification.vendor Sun Microsystems Inc.
java.vm.specification.name Java Virtual Machine Specification
java.vm.vendor Sun Microsystems Inc.
file.separator /
path.separator :
java.vm.specification.vendor Sun Microsystems Inc.
java.vm.name Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM
file.encoding ANSI_X3.4-1968
com.google.appengine.runtime.environment Production





My Favorite MythTV Feature - Commercial Skipping
2010-03-05T08:13:00.000-05:00
MythTV has a ton of great features but my favorite without a doubt is commercial skipping. 



Gmote Android Application - YouTube Demonstrations
2010-03-05T06:02:00.002-05:00
Gmote turns your Android phone into a remote control for your computer, allowing you to start and control movies and music at a distance. It supports all of the standard remote control features such as play, pause, rewind, volume controls etc.  It also has a built-in file browser that lets you view the files that are on your computer and select what you want to play. Gmote can also be used as a wireless Touchpad and keyboard, allowing you to control your computer at distance. Another great feature available in Gmote is the ability to stream music from your computer to your phone!
Below are two YouTube demonstrations. The first demos the touchpad feature and the second demos  music streaming. 
Gmote Music Streaming Demonstration on a Nexus One
Gmote Touchpad Demonstration On A Nexus One



Oggcasts.com
2010-02-27T15:59:00.000-05:00
I combined my joy of Java programming, my desire to give back to the podcasting community, APIs from the great microblogging site of Identi.ca, my craving to try something new (GAE) and I created oggcasts.com. 

Tools Used
Java
GWT
Gooogle Apps Engine
Eclipse IDE
JDOM library 
Status.net APIs
It will be interesting to see how the site holds up to some traffic. Let me know what you think. 





Super Easy Splicing of Video MTS Files
2010-02-21T10:15:00.000-05:00


The high-definition video camera, Canon HF20 creates AVCHD files with an extension of .MTS. A super easy method of splicing scenes together it to use the Unix/Linux command cat, no video editor required. Here is an example:
 cat scene1.MTS scene2.MTS > bothscenes.MTS.
 YouTube processes these concatenated files just fine. Below are links to multiple scene videos I spliced together with the cat command.
Mythmote Installation
Mythmote Demo on a Nexus One



Mythmote Demo on a Nexus One
2010-02-21T07:22:00.000-05:00
Mythmote is an Android application that allows you to use your phone to control your MythTV frontends. This video demonstrates the Mythmote application. If you haven't already check out my instructional video on how to install Mythmote.



Mythmote Installation on Nexus One Phone
2010-02-21T07:21:00.000-05:00
Mythmote is an Android application that allows you to use your phone to control your MythTV frontends. This is an instructional video on how to install Mythmote on an Android phone. If you haven't already, check out the demonstration video of Mythmote.



My MythTV Recording Stats
2010-02-15T21:09:00.000-05:00

MythTV Recording Statistics

Number of shows:
59
Number of episodes:
750
First recording:
Wednesday November 4th, 2009
Last recording:
Monday February 15th, 2010
Total Running Time:
3 months 11 days 14 hrs 2 mins
Total Recorded:
1 month 4 days 20 hrs 31 mins
Percent of time spent recording:
11%
Shows Channels
Title Recorded Last Recorded # Title Recorded Last Recorded
NBC Nightly News 92 February 15 2010 1 WCBDDT (WCBD-DT) 332 February 15 2010
Today 87 February 15 2010 2 WCSCDT (WCSC-DT) 211 February 12 2010
Late Show With David Letterman 68 February 12 2010 3 Comedy Central 101 February 11 2010
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 66 February 12 2010 4 WTATDT (WTAT-DT) 55 February 14 2010
The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien 55 January 22 2010 5 WCIVDT (WCIV-DT) 34 February 10 2010
Live 5 News at 5 54 January 29 2010 6 WITVDT (WITV-DT) 4 February 14 2010
The Colbert Report 51 February 11 2010 7 ESPN 3 January 31 2010
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 50 February 11 2010 8 WMMPDT (WMMP-DT) 1 November 5 2009
NFL Football 49 February 7 2010 9 CNBC 1 December 4 2009
NCIS 14 February 9 2010 10 VH1 - Video Hits One 1 February 6 2010
Fringe 13 February 4 2010 11 
NCIS: Los Angeles 12 February 9 2010 12
The Mentalist 10 January 28 2010 13
Cougar Town 10 February 3 2010 14
Saturday Night Live 10 February 6 2010 15
The New Adventures of Old Christine 9 January 27 2010 16
House 9 February 8 2010 17
60 Minutes 8 January 31 2010 18
The Wanda Sykes Show 7 December 19 2009 19
College Football 7 January 7 2010 20
Modern Family 7 February 3 2010 21
The Middle 5 February 3 2010 22
Ugly Betty 5 February 10 2010 23
Chuck 4 February 8 2010 24
24 4 February 8 2010 25



Pass HTTP Basic Authentication from Apache to Tomcat
2009-11-24T20:01:00.005-05:00
In order for Tomcat to receive http basic authentication credentials from Apache change the AJP13 connector configuration in the Tomcat server.xml file. Add  tomcatAuthentication="false" to the Connector line like the line below. 


<Connector port="8009" protocol="AJP/1.3" redirectPort="8443" tomcatAuthentication="false" />




 




WANTED: 64-bit Amazon MP3 Downloader for Linux
2009-11-15T11:26:00.010-05:00
The Amazon MP3 Downloader for Linux works well. Unfortunately there isn't a 64-bit version. I have requested a 64-bit version through Amazon's website. Please do the same. While you are at it request Ogg and FLAC downloads. 



Response from Amazon


Hello from Amazon.com.

Thanks for writing about the trouble you're having with the Amazon MP3 Downloader. I notice you were recently sent a promotion to purchase $5.00 worth of MP3's from Amazon.com .  While we would like to be able to offer our MP3 down loader software to all of our customers in as many operating systems as possible, the closest we currently have to your operating system is a 32-bit version for Ubuntu.  It may be faster for you to bypass our software altogether and download your music directly from our website as MP3 files.

I've included instructions below to download your music directly as an MP3 file.  I have also included a link to the Linux 32-bit version of our MP3 downloader software.  I can't estimate how long it would take to compile, test and get business approval for a 64-bit version of the downloader.



VLC Streaming - Whole House Audio
2009-11-08T15:19:00.008-05:00
VLC is a free open source cross platform media application. It plays and streams almost every media format known to man. I am using VLC streaming to achieve whole house audio. I have several Ubuntu PCs connected to audio receivers throughout the house. 

To get them all playing the same song I fire up VLC on my server where all my media resides with the following command:
vlc /var/lib/mythtv/music/ --sout udp:239.255.12.42

On each client I issue the following command:
vlc udp://@239.255.12.4

That is all there is to it. I now have four stereos all playing the same tune. Whole house audio is great for parties or Saturday chores.





NETGEAR Powerline Ethernet Adapter
2009-11-07T21:45:00.004-05:00
To extend my local area network to the far end of my house without pulling wire I installed the NETGEAR Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit model XAVB101. While the throughput of 56 Mbps is no where near the advertised speed of "up to 200 Mpbs" it is good enough to stream HD video from my MythTV server. Below are results from my network throughput test using the iperf command on Ubuntu Karmic 9.10.


laptop0:~$ iperf --format [Mbits]  -c 192.168.1.5 -t 10
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.5, TCP port 5001
TCP window size:   131 Kbit (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 192.168.1.68 port 39955 connected with 192.168.1.5 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec    562 Mbits 56.1 Mbits/sec

The installation is dead simple. Plug one powerline adapter into the power outlet near your Ethernet switch. Connect the powerline adapter to your switch with the supplied Ethernet cable. Plug the other powerline adapter into the power outlet near your remote computer. Connect the powerline adapter to your computer with the supplied Ethernet cable.

Bottom line: If you can easily run Cat 5e cable, do it. Cat 5e will give you the best throughput. The next best thing might be this or some other brand powerline Ethernet adapter. In my circumstance it saved me the hassle of pulling wire to a hard to reach spot of my home. It's a keeper.





StreamZap Remote Control Blue Button in MythTV
2009-09-27T10:31:00.005-04:00

I mapped the blue key to "End" on the StreamZap remote control in MythTV by modifying the ~/.mythtv/lircrc file. I added the snippet below to the end of the file and restarted MythTV frontend.  The "End" key tells Myth Music to advance to the next track and when in MythTV Playback it skips commercials (if mythcommflag has previously flagged the recording).


begin
    remote = Streamzap_PC_Remote
    prog = mythtv
    button = BLUE
    config = End
    repeat = 0
    delay = 0
end



Media Info Command
2009-09-23T20:33:00.008-04:00
Below is output from the mediainfo command. I ran it on an episode of FOX's Fringe and CBS's NCIS. It is interesting to see the difference between a prime-time FOX and CBS production. These were recorded by Ubuntu 8.10 MythTV from a HDHomerun receiving over the air content. Differences of note are: The size from FOX was 1280x720 and CBS was 1920x1080.  The frames per second were higher on FOX (59) than CBS (29). Scan type on FOX was progressive and CBS was interlaced. Both included Dolby audio and closed captions.

Fringe


General
ID                               : 9FF
Complete name                    : Fringe - 2009-09-17, 9-00 PM - A New Day in the Old Town.mpg
Format                           : MPEG-TS
File size                        : 6.33 GiB
Duration                         : 59mn 55s
Overall bit rate                 : 15.1 Mbps

Video
ID                               : 51 (0x33)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : MPEG Video
Format version                   : Version 2
Format profile                   : Main@High
Format settings, Matrix          : Default
Duration                         : 59mn 55s
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 13.6 Mbps
Nominal bit rate                 : 19.0 Mbps
Width                            : 1 280 pixels
Height                           : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 59.940 fps
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.247
Stream size                      : 5.71 GiB (90%)

Audio
ID                               : 52 (0x34)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : AC-3
Format/Info                      : Audio Coding 3
Duration                         : 59mn 55s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 448 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Surround: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Stream size                      : 192 MiB (3%)
Language                         : English

Text
ID                               : 51 (0x33)608-1
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : EIA-608
Duration                         : 59mn 55s
Language                         : English
MuxingMode                       : MPEG Video / EIA-708
MuxingMode_MoreInfo              : Muxed in Video #1

NCIS


General
ID                               : 9FB
Complete name                    : NCIS - 2009-09-22, 8-00 PM - Truth or Consequences.mpg
Format                           : MPEG-TS
File size                        : 6.68 GiB
Duration                         : 59mn 56s
Overall bit rate                 : 15.9 Mbps

Video
ID                               : 49 (0x31)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : MPEG Video
Format version                   : Version 2
Format profile                   : Main@High
Format settings, Matrix          : Default
Duration                         : 59mn 56s
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : 14.5 Mbps
Nominal bit rate                 : 65.0 Mbps
Width                            : 1 920 pixels
Height                           : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 29.970 fps
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Interlaced
Scan order                       : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.233
Stream size                      : 6.05 GiB (91%)

Audio
ID                               : 52 (0x34)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : AC-3
Format/Info                      : Audio Coding 3
Duration                         : 59mn 56s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 384 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Surround: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Stream size                      : 165 MiB (2%)
Language                         : English

Text #1
ID                               : 49 (0x31)608-1
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : EIA-608
Duration                         : 59mn 56s
MuxingMode                       : MPEG Video / EIA-708
MuxingMode_MoreInfo              : Muxed in Video #1

Text #2
ID                               : 49 (0x31)608-0
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : EIA-608
Duration                         : 59mn 56s
Language                         : English
MuxingMode                       : MPEG Video / EIA-708
MuxingMode_MoreInfo              : Muxed in Video #1

Text #3
ID                               : 49 (0x31)1
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : EIA-708
Duration                         : 59mn 56s
Language                         : English
MuxingMode                       : MPEG Video / EIA-708
MuxingMode_MoreInfo              : Muxed in Video #1





Fun with the Gphoto2 Command
2009-09-20T19:14:00.000-04:00
I read about another powerful package of free and open source software (FOSS) today. This software application can control over 1,100 different cameras. The command is gphoto2. With this command you can instruct a camera to take a picture, retrieve pictures, list files on the camera, delete files off the camera, etc...  

I like birdwatching and taking pictures of birds. I could never get close enough to take a good picture until now. With gphoto2 I can set my camera on a tri-pod in my backyard right in front of my bird feeders. I connect the camera via USB to a netbook. The netbook sits under the camera on the tri-pod. The netbook is connected to my wireless router via Wi-Fi. I have a computer in the living room that has a window view of my feeders. I remotely connect to my netbook using the ssh command. When a bird comes in to feed I execute the gphoto2 command on the netbook and now I've got an up-close-and-personal photo of the bird.

Here is the command syntax I'm using on my netbook running Ubuntu 9.04 operating system:

gphoto2 --capture-image --get-file capt0000.jpg --folder /store_00010001 --hook-script test-hook.sh --force-overwrite

The gphoto2 command above tells the netbook to instruct the camera to take a photo, get the file from the camera and display it. I can then decide whether or not it is a keeper. If it is a keeper I copy the file from the netbook to my computer in the living room with the following command:

scp 192.168.111.2:/home/htplainf/capt0000.jpg capt0009.jpg

The command scp above performs a secure copy from the netbook to the computer in the living room.

I didn't get to spend much time taking pictures due to the inclement weather but I did iron out my work flow. Below are a couple shots of up-close-and-personal cardinals. Click on the photos to enlarge.









I'm frequently amazed by the free and open source Linux operating system Ubuntu. If it can be done with software it can be done on Linux and at no cost to the user. 




Fun with the Mencoder Command
2009-09-19T17:37:00.002-04:00
On July 14, 2005 the cities of Charleston and Mt Pleasant SC celebrated the opening of the Arthur Ravenel Jr Bridge with a magnificent fireworks show. I snapped over 400 pictures that night. I published the photos to my website PatrickArchibald.com. The next day the photos went viral. The site went down for a few hours while I negotiated extra bandwidth with my web hosting provider. Good times. 


Recently while exploring video encoding on my Ubuntu 8.10 Linux computer I ran across the mencoder command. One of the many things you can do with the mencoder command is create videos from images.


My 400 fireworks photos are compiled at 15 per second in the video below. Enjoy the next 28 seconds. 





Below is the command syntax I used to create this video. 


mencoder "mf://*.jpg" -mf fps=15 -o output.avi -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4

I'm frequently amazed by the free and open source Linux operating system Ubuntu. If it can be done with software it can be done on Linux and at no cost to the user. 




us.archive.ubuntu.com
2009-09-10T18:43:00.005-04:00
us.archive.ubuntu.com must have been undergoing maintenance. Here is another screen shot of the mtr us.archive.ubuntu.com command. 

Why does us.archive.ubuntu.com reside in London? Below is the output from mtr us.archive.ubuntu.com command. I was trying run updates on my Ubuntu boxes and was receiving some timeouts. I start investigating with the mtr command. Does us.archive.ubuntu.com actually reside in London or are there servers in the US undergoing maintenance? 




Conky with Identi.ca Dents
2009-09-07T21:46:00.004-04:00
Below is my latest Conky screen from my Ubuntu 8.10 MythTV back-end server. I recently added Identi.ca updates at the bottom. I have room for 3 dents. 




Firmware Update for HDHomerun
2009-08-08T10:17:00.005-04:00

SilconDust released a firmware update for the HDHomerun Networked Digital TV Tuner on  August 6, 2009. I use my HDHomerun to capture over the air digital HD television and record it to my MythTV backend. 

Below is the change log for the 20090806 release: 

Report TSID in streaminfo for use with channel matching.
Speed up detection of audio channels with single-frame picture - fixes problem where audio channels may be missed by the channel scan.
Improvements to the handling of strong adjacent channels.
Improvements to signal reporting.
Fix lockup/reboot when under TCP DoS attack.
Fix situation where firmware may not upgrade on the first attempt. Fix applies to future upgrades.
Add PnPX support.
ATSC: Handle ClearQAM streams that contain invalid tables from rebroadcasting OTA channels.
TECH: execute /sys/boot on link up rather than power up.
TECH: prevent timing-out of tune requests.



Strangest Bug / Feature Ever
2009-08-05T18:13:00.004-04:00
This is the strangest bug / feature I've ever seen. Look in the upper right hand corner of the Chromium browser screen scrape below. Some developer's mug shot is where the close-window button should be. The screen shot is Chromium Browser version 3.0.197 on Ubuntu. Some of the comments on this issue are comical.  



MythTV Configuration
2009-07-29T19:10:00.007-04:00
My MythTV setup has changed several times since I first started with MythTV. Here are my systems as of July 2009. 

Backend


Ubuntu Intreped Ibex 8.10 with Mythbuntu add-on

GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P motherboard

AMD Phenom II 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor

Nvidia GeForce 9400GT video card

Hauppauge HVR-1600 capture card

Hauppauge PVR-150 capture card

HDHomeRun Networked Digital TV Tuner used to capture over the air digital TV



Frontend 0


Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 with Mythbuntu add-on

ZOTAC GF8200-C-E NVIDIA GeForce 8200 Mini ITX Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e Brisbane 2.6GHz Dual-Core Processor


Frontend 1


Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 with Mythbuntu add-on

Dell XPS M140


Frontends via UPnP or Network Share


PS3

Popcorn Hour








Keyboard Shortcuts and Your Default Browser
2009-07-10T22:45:00.011-04:00

I rarely use the system menu to start applications. I use keyboard shortcuts instead. Keyboard shortcuts are convenient time savers. To configure the shortcuts I use gconf-editor or CompizConfig Settings Manager (if I have Compiz turned on). Lately I've been using Chromium as my browser. Since Chromium is under heavy development it occasionally becomes unusable and I have to switch back to Firefox. I was hard-coding the browser command in my keyboard shortcuts. This became problematic with frequent browser hopping. I now use the xdg-open command when defining my keyboard shortcuts. xdg-open opens a file or URL in the user’s preferred application. Below is a screen shot of my keyboard shortcuts defined in gconf-editor on Ubuntu Juanty 9.04.



In the screen shot above notice that in the metacity keybinding_commands I have 

xdg-open http://gmail.com

where I used to have

firefox http://gmail.com

Now when switching browsers I don't have to update each keyboard binding command I just change my default browser in Ubuntu by clicking through the menu: System / Preferences / Preferred Applications / Web Browser. 



xdg-open is more convenient for this browser hopper.


MythTV In A Window
2009-06-30T19:30:00.006-04:00
In episode 4 of the MythTV Podcast a listener asked about displaying MythTV in a window instead of consuming the entire desktop. This can be done using the -geometry parameter on the mythtv and mythfrontend commands. Below is a screen shot of my desktop using the following command mythfrontend -geometry 800x450.


 





South East Linux Fest 2009
2009-06-13T22:42:00.018-04:00


The inaugural South East Linux Fest was held June 13, 2009 at the Clemson University Hendrix Student Center. The turn out was great. The event was very well organized. Tip of the hat to Dave Yates and everyone that had a hand in putting this event together. There were 20 sessions if you include the two keynotes. I attended the following:

Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier

openSUSE - Joe's keynote jump started the event with flying Geekos and discussion on the openSUSE project.


Mark Spencer

Digium - The creator of GAIM (renamed Pidgin), Asterisk and founder of Digium shared his insight and experiences growing Digium.


Brian Leonard

OpenSolaris - Brian demonstrated how to quickly create and deploy desktop and web applications using the Netbeans IDE. He then showed how to test those applications on various operating systems using VirtualBox. These are some very powerful tools that I use almost everyday. An overview of Developing Beyond Localhost can be found here.


Peter Graner

Ubuntu Kernel - Peter discussed the structure of the Ubuntu kernel team and the kernel development life cycle. He touched on the small differences from from Linus' tree. This session had the most technical nuggets of the sessions I attended. Very interesting stuff. You can review Peter's The Ubuntu Kernel slides here.


Chris DiBona

Google - Chris's talk about Google's use and promotion of open source software was informative and entertaining. Chris is very witty and had the crowd rolling with laughter. He discussed a few of Google's open source products GWT, Android and Wave. A special thanks for Google for GWT.  I use it for Intranet applications at work. GWT enables me to deploy AJAX application without worrying about cross browser issues in a language I'm familiar with, Java.



Chad Wollenberg

Open Source in Education - Chad gave a passionate talk about his success in implementing open source software solutions in education. Open source software has saved Mecklenburg County Schools in Virginia many thousands of dollars. He had great tips on how to plant the seeds of open source software in education.


Semmy Purewal

Building Community-based Technology Centers with FOSS - Semmy Purewal is a visiting Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at the College of Charleston and a founding member of Free IT Athens. He discussed his experiences in providing low income communities with low cost computing using recycled computers, volunteers and open source software. His current project, the Gussie Greene Technology Center in North Charleston SC, is close to my home. Grassroots activism at its finest. 


Paul Frields

Fedora - The day closed with Paul discussing Fedora's community and its relationship with Red Hat.



It was good to associate faces with the various podcasters that were in attendance. I'm looking forward to next year's South East Linux Fest. Congratulations SELF organizers! 



MythTV Backend Microblogs
2009-06-06T10:47:00.004-04:00

My MythTV backend now microblogs. To see what my MythTV backend has recently recorded visit its Identi.ca acount.

Thanks to Mark for his blog entry Posting MythTV recordings to a Laconica server.



MythTV Backend PC Gutted
2009-06-06T08:23:00.009-04:00

I implanted new vital organs in my 5 year old PC. The Ubuntu MythTV backend's life has been extended. The surgery was painless. CPU, motherboard, power supply, graphics card, and memory are all functioning perfectly in the old body.
 


AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor

GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK 

Galaxy - NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 512MB DDR3 Low-Profile PCI Express Graphics Card

Antec - EarthWatts 650-Watt ATX CPU Power Supply




UHF/VHF Outdoor Antenna Works Fine In Attic
2009-05-24T20:16:00.013-04:00
I'm a big fan of over-the-air (OTA) digital TV. It is free and there is plenty of high definition (HD) content. I think it is the highest quality content available other than a Blu-ray disc. OTA certainly beats Comcast Cable TV's signal.



I had been using a small indoor antenna to receive all my OTA content. It worked well when all the local stations were broadcasting in the UHF band. However, our local PBS station, SC ETV WITV, switched from UHF to VHF early in 2009 (reasons revealed at the end of this post).   I could no longer pick up their 3 stations with my small indoor antenna.




I was missing my PBS shows so I decided to purchase an outdoor antenna from Lowes. I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of seeing an antenna on my roof so I installed it in my attic instead. The hardest part of the install was fishing the coaxial cable from the attic through the wall into my wiring closet. In my wiring closet I have the coax connected to a splitter connecting to both capture devices on my HD Homerun. The HD Homerun is connected to my LAN. I have the two capture devices configured in my MythTV backend so all my MythTV frontends can enjoy OTA content. Sweet!

It has worked out really well. The reception is great and the antenna it is protected from the wind and rain. Below are my screen scrapes of my signal results on my HD Homerun unit. Note that the Signal Quality is the most important property.

PBS

NBC

FOX

CBS

ABC

My TV Charleston



According to AntennaWeb.org more stations may switch from UHF to VHF after the digital transition is complete. So, if you have been getting by using a small UHF antenna you may want to look into purchasing an outdoor VHF antenna.

Why SCETV Switched From UHF to VHF


Here is the response I received when asking why SCETV switched from UHF to VHF. 

It takes less than one tenth the transmission power to cover the same area on VHF as it does on UHF.  With state budget cuts and corresponding layoffs recently, we're obliged to save money every place we can.  Moving to channel 7 will save us nearly $5,000 per month in electrical costs at the Charleston station alone.  Likewise, at Charleston, we were leasing a port on a common antenna used by three stations at $15,000 per month.  So the combination will total $20,000 per month savings of tax dollars. 
 
On analog, we covered from the ocean to Lake Marion on channel 7 and from Myrtle Beach to Beaufort.  The only difference now is that we have a digital signal on channel 7 instead of an analog signal on channel 7 using the same broadcast antenna.  The coverage is the same, but you do need an antenna that performs well on VHF.
 
Hap Griffin
VP - Engineering
SCETV



YouTube Processes MTS AVCHD Video Files
2009-05-18T17:24:00.009-04:00






I purchased a high-definition video camera, Canon HF20. It creates AVCHD files with an extension of .MTS. I wasted several days looking for software to transcode the clips to something YouTube would accept. I say wasted because it turns out that YouTube will process MTS files straight from my video camera. So if you have MTS clips that don't require any editing just upload them to YouTube and they will appear in their pseudo high-definition glory shortly. Check out the clips below. 



Hummingbird clip 100

Hummingbird clip 101

Hummingbird clip 102

Hummingbird clip 103

Hummingbird clip 104

Hummingbird clip 105

Iguana filmed from boat in Key Largo FL

Egrets filmed from boat in Key Largo FL




Dell USA Ubuntu Computers May 17 2009
2009-05-17T11:36:00.003-04:00
In the USA Dell is offering only 4 computers with Ubuntu as May 17, 2009. That is a drop of 2 computers since February 2009. See screen scrape below. 



VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol (VRDP)
2009-04-19T07:48:00.018-04:00



I recently tested Sun's VirtualBox v2.2. VirtualBox's Virtual Remote Desktop Protocol (VRDP) has been around for some time now. I was made aware of VRDP while listening to Jupiter Broadcasting In Depth Look. VRDP allows you to see the output of a virtual machine’s window on any remote computer and control the virtual machine from there. I thought I'd test VirtualBox v2.2 VRDP.

Here are two commands that I used once VirtualBox was installed, an Ubuntu 9.04 VM was created, Ubuntu patched, and VirtualBox Guest Additions installed . 

To turn the VRDP option on the VM instance: 

VBoxManage modifyvm <vmname> --vrdp on

To start a headless VRDP session on the host: 

VBoxHeadless --startvm <uuid|name>

After issuing the VBoxHeadless command you should see a message on the host "Listening on port 3389". On Linux machines you can use rdesktop to view the remote VM and on Window's machines you use Remote Desktop Connection or the mstsc.exe command. Note:Use the IP address of your host system as the server address to remote to.

What is really intriguing to me are the thin client possibilities. In a Sun Ray environment you can point a Sun Ray Windows Connector user's smart card at the IP of the host VM server. I've successfully connected to an Ubuntu 9.04 VirtualBox VM via a Sun Ray. 

The good news is it is snappy.  VRDP to a virtual machine appears faster than connecting via X to a stand-alone machine. Amazing. 

The bad news is there appear to be some bugs in VRDP. When accessing via Sun Ray the session drops off and reconnects periodically. I can not connect via WYSE WT1200LE, which is a pretty old thin client. It works well from a Windows machine. 

I will continue to test and monitor VRDP on Sun Rays for stability improvements. VirtualBox is a great tool. Give it a try.


Google Apps Status Board
2009-02-26T06:33:00.004-05:00

Google has created the Google Apps Status Board for ongoing service performance information. Google is responding to user feedback that they were not providing much timely information about outages that greatly affect business operations. This app will enable Google to proactively communicate with customers when outages occur. Much appreciated.

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