Posts

Posted on

How to Rip MP3 using Sound Juicer (Ubuntu Tips)

Ubuntu comes with a default CD ripping utility called Sound Juicer that lets you convert Audio CD tracks into digital music format. However Sound Juicer only able to rip Audio CDs into OGG format by default. Most people that familiar with MP3 format might find this as a drawback because MP3 ripping option is not available because of its patented status.

However in the spirit of ‘freedom’ in the free and open source, I’d like to show you how to enable MP3 ripping capability in Sound Juicer

Enable MP3 CD Ripping
This guide assume that you’re using the latest release of Ubuntu (Feisty Fawn).

  • Firstly you need to install and gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse
  • Then start Sound Juicer application, and select Edit->Preference
  • You should be able to see that MP3 option has been enabled in Sound Juicer
sj.jpg

The default bitrate setting for MP3 is 160Kbps, you can change MP3 encoding parameters by clicking “Edit Profiles” option in the application, and that’s it! You are ready to rip CDs to MP3 format!

[tags]mp3,ubuntu,feisty,feisty fawn,ripping,gstreamer,debian,encoder,cd ripper[/tags]

Posted on

Inside My Linux DLink G-604T Broadband Modem/Router

Here’s the interior of my DLink G-604T Broadband Router/Modem, I put here just for viewing after the modem stopped working last month.

dlink1.jpg
dlink31.jpg
dlink2.jpg

FYI, I can still telnet to the modem and play with its settings, the only thing that is not working is the DSL broadband connection to Streamyx. DSL G-604T runs MontaVista-based Linux operating system with kernel 2.4.17 and Busybox utilities. This makes G-604T a great choice for firmware hacking, which makes me want to keep this around for awhile for experimentation purpose.

Now I’m using the stock TM Kasda modem, not that fancy though, but it gets me online. I make a new mental note about broadband modems = they tend to overheat on a poorly ventilated areas.

p/s: I’ll probably will get a new modem next month, since the rest of the family is nagging me for wireless connection :p

[tags]dlink,modem,wireless,wifi,linux,kernel,hacking,broadband[/tags]

Posted on

I’m selling Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers Book

Hi there, I’d like to announce here that I’m offering to sell Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers : A Guide to Developing Internet Agents with Php/cURL for a heavily discounted price to Malaysian. The book is new and it is still in its original packaging from Powells.com, the reason for selling it is there’s a confusion during the ordering process that I received two books of the same title, so I’m selling it.

The book is interesting because it detailed on how to build efficient and stealthy web robots to manage your daily tasks, data mining and website monitoring. There are also 3 chapters in this book which deals with bots designed for crawling other protocol than web (ftp, nntp, emails)

This book is a must have if you’re interested to learn about how to build and deploy webrobots which is still considered a black art even today.

Details
webbots.jpg

My price : RM85 (USD27) – inclusive post cost
Pay to : Maybank,CIMB, Paypal
Delivery : by PosLaju
Condition: New (you can smell the ink + original package)

Please contact me if you’re interested.

Posted on

How to activate Debian GNU Linux Etch GUI Installer

Some of my friends aren’t aware that the latest Debian relese (Etch – 4.0) includes an optional GUI installer. This option can be activated at the CDROM boot prompt by entering ‘installgui’ option.

debianinstalltn1.png

debian3tn.png

While the GUI installer is not particularly impressive when compared with modern GNU/Linux distributions, it is nice to know that the Debian team has taken such effort to code one. For the time being, the new Debian gui Installer only available on x86 platform as is still marked as an experimental feature.

[tags]debian,opensource,open source, linux, livecd, installer, ubuntu, etch[/tags]

Posted on

WordPress 2.2 was finally released

After being delayed for almost a month, WordPress 2.2 was finally released on 15 May 2007. Please refer to my previous WordPress 2.2 post for my personal thoughts about it.

The next WordPress release will be on September 2007, unless if they discovered a critical bug which needs to addressed immediately.

Please read the official release announcement from the official WordPress blog for further information.

[tags]open source, opensource,wordpress,blog,blogging[/tags]

Posted on

How to open Office 2007 OpenXML in OpenOffice.org

As you probably know, the latest release of Microsoft Office 2007 uses OpenXML as its default document format. While it is similar to OpenDocument (ODF), it is not currently supported by OpenOffice (in contrast to previous *.doc MS Office binary format).

Workaround for OpenXML files
The first alternative is to download Novell’s version of OpenOffice.org and install Novell OpenXML translator add-ins which enables OpenOffice to open Microsoft’s OpenXML files.

Another alternative is to use docx2doc service to convert OpenXML files to the previous Office 2000 doc format. The service costs USD2 per conversion, and you only need to pay upon successful conversion.

The final and most obvious alternative is to use (or ask somebody with) Office 2007 for converting OpenXML files back to the old Microsoft Office format (*.doc, *.ppt, etc), or use odf-converter add-ins for Microsoft Office to convert OpenXML files.

These are method currently known to me for opening OpenXML in GNU/Linux operating system, please suggest other alternative if you know one.

p/s : Hang on tight, the official OpenOffice.org project may implement OpenXML support in future release, until then, you may want to tell people to avoid sending you document files in OpenXML format.

Credit to Najmi for mentioning some of the solutions

[tags]openoffice,openxml,openoffice.org,microsoft office,docx,office 2007,microsoft[/tags]