Ever needed to charge your Motorola phone in Windows, but poor Windows just can't find the drivers? Well, look no further! Try these drivers, see if they work!
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
How to use ffmpeg to split a video
Have you ever needed to take a clip from a larger video file to use in a presentation, post to youtube, or to show awesome classic Christmas cartoons to your kids? Well, whatever the reason, here is a simple command to make it happen in Ubuntu, thanks to your friend, ffmpeg.
"where START is starting positing in seconds or in format hh:mm:ss LENGTH is the chunk length in seconds or in format hh:mm:ss
So you will need to run this command few times depending on how long your video. If let's say your video is 31 minutes long and you want so split into 15 min chunks here is how you run it:"
Source
ffmpeg -acodec copy -vcodec copy -ss START -t LENGTH -i ORIGINALFILE.mp4 OUTFILE.mp4
"where START is starting positing in seconds or in format hh:mm:ss LENGTH is the chunk length in seconds or in format hh:mm:ss
So you will need to run this command few times depending on how long your video. If let's say your video is 31 minutes long and you want so split into 15 min chunks here is how you run it:"
ffmpeg -acodec copy -vcodec copy -ss 0 -t 00:15:00 -i ORIGINALFILE.mp4 OUTFILE-1.mp4
ffmpeg -acodec copy -vcodec copy -ss 00:15:00 -t 00:15:00 -i ORIGINALFILE.mp4 OUTFILE-2.mp4
ffmpeg -acodec copy -vcodec copy -ss 00:30:00 -t 00:15:00 -i ORIGINALFILE.mp4 OUTFILE-3.mp4
Source
Saturday, November 24, 2012
A Day in the Life - Einstein's Office
So apparently this is a picture of Einstein's office, as he left it, on the day he died. The source link has a nice article. RIP Mr. Einstein.
Source
Friday, October 12, 2012
Monday, October 1, 2012
$$$ Get Access to Your Flash Cache! $$$
Have you ever needed (wanted) to access the flash content downloaded to your computer when it buffers (Youtube, other less reputable sites, etc.)? Well, if you are using Chrome under Linux, here are some handy tips (this should work with whatever browser you're using, but let's be honest, I'm too lazy to test it out - yet)
sudo lsof -n | grep Flash
Then, cd to the process id directory listed under all entries displayed that have (deleted) at the end. Then
cd /proc/[process_id]/fd/
and
sudo ls -l
to find the file that is (deleted). Next do
sudo cp [file] ~/Videos
or, for example if the file is '30'
sudo cp 30 ~/Videos/video.flv
Now, at this point you'll probably have to change owners to be able to watch it, or
sudo chown [your_username] video.flv
or
sudo chown benji video.flv
And there you have it! If you're looking for more flexibility, more options, or (a lot) more discussion about the topic, try the Sources listed below. Good luck!
Source 1
Source 2
sudo lsof -n | grep Flash
Then, cd to the process id directory listed under all entries displayed that have (deleted) at the end. Then
cd /proc/[process_id]/fd/
and
sudo ls -l
to find the file that is (deleted). Next do
sudo cp [file] ~/Videos
or, for example if the file is '30'
sudo cp 30 ~/Videos/video.flv
Now, at this point you'll probably have to change owners to be able to watch it, or
sudo chown [your_username] video.flv
or
sudo chown benji video.flv
And there you have it! If you're looking for more flexibility, more options, or (a lot) more discussion about the topic, try the Sources listed below. Good luck!
Source 1
Source 2
Rotate a PDF in Linux (and Other Fun Activities) - pdftk
For those of you who have ever needed to manipulate a PDF in Linux, I highly recommend pdftk, I've had great luck with it. Here's the best way to rotate a PDF:
sudo apt-get install pdftk
To rotate page 1 by 90 degrees clockwise:
pdftk in.pdf cat 1E output out.pdf
To rotate all pages clockwise:
pdftk in.pdf cat 1-endE output out.pdf
The page rotation setting can cause pdftk to rotate pages and documents. Each option sets the page rotation as follows (in degrees): N: 0, E: 90, S: 180, W: 270, L: -90, R: +90, D: +180. L, R, and D make relative adjustments to a page's rotation.
Unabashedly stolen from here.
sudo apt-get install pdftk
To rotate page 1 by 90 degrees clockwise:
pdftk in.pdf cat 1E output out.pdf
To rotate all pages clockwise:
pdftk in.pdf cat 1-endE output out.pdf
The page rotation setting can cause pdftk to rotate pages and documents. Each option sets the page rotation as follows (in degrees): N: 0, E: 90, S: 180, W: 270, L: -90, R: +90, D: +180. L, R, and D make relative adjustments to a page's rotation.
Unabashedly stolen from here.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Stunning Book Art - Literally!
Thanks again to Huckberry for this find!
These amazing masterpieces of literature (get it?) are the handiwork of Guy Laramee. Pretty sweet, right?!
Source: http://huckberry.com/blog/posts/128-novel-landscapes
Source: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/06/new-carved-book-landscapes-by-guy-laramee/?src=footer
These amazing masterpieces of literature (get it?) are the handiwork of Guy Laramee. Pretty sweet, right?!
Source: http://huckberry.com/blog/posts/128-novel-landscapes
Source: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/06/new-carved-book-landscapes-by-guy-laramee/?src=footer
Monday, August 13, 2012
IEEE LaTex Class Issue - Tune Fonts
So, I ran into an issue trying to get the IEEE LaTex class to work with a conference paper. Apparently some issue with tune fonts:
! Emergency stop.
<*> ...ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input nullfont
Transcript written on mfput.log.
grep: nullfont.log: No such file or directory
mktextfm: `mf-nowin -progname=mf \mode:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input nullfont' failed to make nullfont.tfm.
! Font \OT1/ptm/b/it/7=nullfont not loadable: Metric (TFM) file not found. \@IEEEtunefonts
Well, it turns out I'm not the only person to see this problem. If you also see this issue, all you need to do is:
which will install the necessary font package. Awesome!
Source
UPDATE
So, apparently not having texlive-fonts-recommended can also cause this error:
! I can't find file `ptmr7t'.
<*> ...:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ptmr7t
Please type another input file name
! Emergency stop.
<*> ...:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ptmr7t
Transcript written on mfput.log.
grep: ptmr7t.log: No such file or directory
I discovered this after upgrading to Precise, and having to reinstall a bunch of packages (this one included.) Hope it helps!
! Emergency stop.
<*> ...ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input nullfont
Transcript written on mfput.log.
grep: nullfont.log: No such file or directory
mktextfm: `mf-nowin -progname=mf \mode:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input nullfont' failed to make nullfont.tfm.
! Font \OT1/ptm/b/it/7=nullfont not loadable: Metric (TFM) file not found. \@IEEEtunefonts
Well, it turns out I'm not the only person to see this problem. If you also see this issue, all you need to do is:
sudo apt-get install texlive-fonts-recommended
which will install the necessary font package. Awesome!
Source
UPDATE
So, apparently not having texlive-fonts-recommended can also cause this error:
! I can't find file `ptmr7t'.
<*> ...:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ptmr7t
Please type another input file name
! Emergency stop.
<*> ...:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ptmr7t
Transcript written on mfput.log.
grep: ptmr7t.log: No such file or directory
I discovered this after upgrading to Precise, and having to reinstall a bunch of packages (this one included.) Hope it helps!
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Danish Watches - Now in Titanium!
Today I was introduced to the Skagen Denmark watch. It was quite by chance, as my wife and I were out on a date window shopping at the mall, we glanced at some watches on our way through a department store, and our eyes caught one of these. Low and behold, it was a Danish watch! Then, not only that, it was a Titanium Danish watch! And, it was called a Skagen!! (For those who don't know, I visited there some years ago and absolutely loved the place.) So, of course I was in heaven. I have added it to my wish list (at the top), and once I am lucky enough to own one, I will give a full review on how nice the watch really is.
(Pictured: left - Skagen Men's 233XLTTN Titanium Watch, right - Skagen Men's 809XLTBN Titanium Blue Dial Watch)
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Supercool Posters
(Super awesome) Steve Thomas poster art: http://www.stevethomasart.com
Originally discovered on Huckberry
More Huckberry

Random cool stuff from Huckberry
Bluetooth tags, Render K Pen, AAA Pocket Flashlight, EDC Kit, V:King kubb set
Friday, July 20, 2012
Ubuntu video editing - Kdenlive
So, I was looking around furiously for a decent video editing tool to use on Ubuntu, so I could make videos for a conference presentation in a hurry. After trying a few (unsuccessfully), I was about to give up and go use a Mac. But, I decided to give one more a try, and struck gold with Kdenlive. It's simple, intuitive, and super snappy. Give it a try!
Try Kdenlive
Try Kdenlive
Monday, July 16, 2012
Getting 32-bit stuff to work on Ubuntu 64-bit
So, I bought into the hype and install Ubuntu 64-bit on my laptop, ostensibly to run super awesome PCL. Well, turns out not all things are meant to work out. MATLAB student version, for example. It was intentionally designed only for 32-bit machines. While it installs fine, some functionality, like compiling mex files, sadly does not work. So, some lovely hacking was required to get it working on my machine.
Get a simple mex file and try to compile it. You’ll probably get this error.
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lmx
The way to get around that is to run the following command in MATLAB just before you try to compile a mex file
setenv('MATLAB_ARCH', 'glnx86') (IN MATLAB)
That gets you a little further but you’ll next be hit by
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lstdc++
To fix this you need to find your mexopts.sh file and change the line
CLIBS="$CLIBS -lstdc++"
to
CLIBS="$CLIBS -L/home/paul/matlab/R2009a-student/sys/os/glnx86 -lstdc++"
obviously, you’ll need to change /home/paul/matlab to wherever you actually installed MATLAB.
Your next step is to do the following in a bash prompt
ln -s /home/paul/matlab/R2009a-student/sys/os/glnx86/libstdc++.so.6 \
/home/paul/matlab/R2009a-student/sys/os/glnx86/libstdc++.so
again – substituting wherever you installed MATLAB for /home/paul/matlab
Paul was running Ubuntu 9.04 and he got the following error at some point (I can’t remember where)
/usr/include/gnu/stubs.h:7:27: error: gnu/stubs-32.h: No such file or directory
which was fixed by
sudo apt-get install libc6-dev-i386
That’s pretty much it. You should now be able to compile mex files.
Source: http://www.walkingrandomly.com/?p=1959
Also, my nice Canon printer / all-in-one. Finding Linux drivers in the first place was quite the headache, but making them work on a 64-bit machine? Well, thankfully someone had done that one already.
For each package do the following:
1. dpkg -x [package].deb common
2. dpkg --control [package].deb
3. nano DEBIAN/control
4. remove the whole "Dependency:" line
5. cp -a DEBIAN/ common/
6. dpkb -b common [package].deb
7. dpkg --force-all -i [package].deb
8. rm -rf common DEBIAN
The install.sh script should work properly now.
sudo chown root:root /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstocanonij
sudo chown root:root /usr/lib/cups/backend/cnijnet
Source: http://dukuntu.blogspot.com/2011/10/mp560-and-1110-64-bit.html
Thanks guys!
Get a simple mex file and try to compile it. You’ll probably get this error.
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lmx
The way to get around that is to run the following command in MATLAB just before you try to compile a mex file
setenv('MATLAB_ARCH', 'glnx86') (IN MATLAB)
That gets you a little further but you’ll next be hit by
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lstdc++
To fix this you need to find your mexopts.sh file and change the line
CLIBS="$CLIBS -lstdc++"
to
CLIBS="$CLIBS -L/home/paul/matlab/R2009a-student/sys/os/glnx86 -lstdc++"
obviously, you’ll need to change /home/paul/matlab to wherever you actually installed MATLAB.
Your next step is to do the following in a bash prompt
ln -s /home/paul/matlab/R2009a-student/sys/os/glnx86/libstdc++.so.6 \
/home/paul/matlab/R2009a-student/sys/os/glnx86/libstdc++.so
again – substituting wherever you installed MATLAB for /home/paul/matlab
Paul was running Ubuntu 9.04 and he got the following error at some point (I can’t remember where)
/usr/include/gnu/stubs.h:7:27: error: gnu/stubs-32.h: No such file or directory
which was fixed by
sudo apt-get install libc6-dev-i386
That’s pretty much it. You should now be able to compile mex files.
Source: http://www.walkingrandomly.com/?p=1959
Also, my nice Canon printer / all-in-one. Finding Linux drivers in the first place was quite the headache, but making them work on a 64-bit machine? Well, thankfully someone had done that one already.
For each package do the following:
1. dpkg -x [package].deb common
2. dpkg --control [package].deb
3. nano DEBIAN/control
4. remove the whole "Dependency:" line
5. cp -a DEBIAN/ common/
6. dpkb -b common [package].deb
7. dpkg --force-all -i [package].deb
8. rm -rf common DEBIAN
The install.sh script should work properly now.
sudo chown root:root /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstocanonij
sudo chown root:root /usr/lib/cups/backend/cnijnet
Source: http://dukuntu.blogspot.com/2011/10/mp560-and-1110-64-bit.html
Thanks guys!
Friday, June 29, 2012
Prometheus = Robots
Seriously, who doesn't love robots? And movies about robots? Well, for those of you adventurous souls, check out these seriously awesome promovideos about (and even starring) robots!
Source: http://blog.ted.com/ted2023/
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Inspiring Study Picture
I really like this picture. Makes me want to work. And I can relate to the banner.
Source: http://artofmanliness.com/2012/01/27/write-this-down-note-taking-strategies-for-academic-success/
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