Tag: linux

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Bloat alarm : We need a another “Firefox” to Mozilla Firefox

Back few years ago, there are a bunch of dude released a lightweight browser named Phoenix (way back in 2001-2002) as an alternative to the current Mozilla browser release.

This lightweight browser which contains no more than bare component (Gecko) to enable web browsing was a major attraction by itself. Then they changed the name to Firebird and finally to Mozilla Firefox because of legal issues. Its not about the naming problem though, a rose by another name is still a rose.

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox gain the fame of being a lean and mean web browser, as in its original vision. But then things started to change. As the user grew, they started to add features that make the browser become more complicated. Bugs and usability problem begins to rear its ugly head. One of the things people might notice is it began to eat up much of valueable resources. CPU usage starts to shoot up, memory leaks being the norm since 1.5.x release. It does not feel like a “lean and mean” browser anymore.

What matter most is not the bell and whistle, if people want that, they would just download Seamonkey, because why else it is being offered in the first place? Fix memory and CPU resource problem because it is so damn obvious it failed to act as lightweight browser there. We dont need all the bell and whistle, a “simple lightweight” browser would suffice.

Perhaps we need another “Firefox” to Mozilla Firefox, this time for real…

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How to upgrade to Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 LTS without Internet Connection

ubuntu hardy logo

Previously I’ve published how to upgrade Ubuntu Linux operating system to the latest release using “upgdate-manager” tool. But what if the computer you are upgrading does not have internet connection ?

Upgrading to Hardy Heron without Internet Connection

  1. Download and burn the alternate installation CDROM
  2. Put it in your CDROM Drive and follow the instruction
  3. If nothing happened, you can launch upgrade manager by typing :

    gksu “sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade”

That’s all hope you can enjoy the latest Ubuntu 8.04 LTS release !

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Linux: How to get Harddisk UUID number

Modern Linux system uses UUID instead of traditional block name (/dev/hda1, /dev/hda5, /dev/sdb) to uniquely identify harddisk or other storage medium. This is because UUID is unique and never changes even if you switch the harddisk ordering.

So by mounting or refering your hard disk by its UUID, you are guaranteed to mount the correct storage medium no matter where its connected on your system.

Here’s how to get your harddisk UUID number

Method 1: Ubuntu and Debian Way

sudo vol_id /dev/hda1

This command display harddisk extra information including its filesystem and uuid number.

Method 2: using /dev/disk/by-uuid/

Another method which works universally on modern GNU Linux operating system is :

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

which will uuid of connected storage medium to your computer.

That’s all, now you can easily identify your storage disk UUID number without much problem anymore.

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FLV2MPEG4 : Convert FLV to MPEG4

Here is an easy way to convert Adobe Flash Video files (FLV) to MPEG-4 using a tool called flv2mpeg4.

  1. First you need to download flv2mpeg4 using svn from its project websites

    svn co https://vixynet.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/vixynet/trunk vixynet

    .

  2. Install ffmpeg, libavcodec-dev, libavformat-dev and libavutil-dev package
  3. read the docs and compile flv2mpeg4

You can convert flash video file to mpeg4 by executing :
flv2mpeg4 youtube.flv youtube.mpeg4

Alternatively you can install flv2mpeg4 from GetDeb.net website.

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AVTech CCTV DVR Motion Detector Settings

Couple of days ago I was given a task to configure CCTV DVR device (AVTech 4 Channel MPEG 4 recorder). I prefer the embedded device approach as opposed to the cheap PC CCTV cards as the latter requires a full blown PC and it depends on Windows operating system (which naturally incur additional costs).

AVTEch CCTV Security DVR

The AVTech CCTV DVR is priced slightly higher, but you get the perks of having a dedicated and compact device for your CCTV solution. It has a network interface which lets you configure and view your CCTV security camera over the internet.

Motion Detector Settings
Generally I’ve no trouble at all in using AVTech, the only thing that I’ve hard time figuring is the motion detector settings, which allows the camera to record the video only if it detects movement on one of its cameras.

Fortunally I found a source which reveals the meaning of each configurable settings on the AVtech CCTV device :

Continue reading “AVTech CCTV DVR Motion Detector Settings”

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Wubi – Easiest way to install Ubuntu in Windows partition

Wubi is an application which simplifies Ubuntu Linux installation on Windows partition. To Windows users, Wubi eliminates the hassle of having to repartition hard disk which carry the risk of loosing precious data.

Wubi does this by using a loopback device, creating a large file on a Windows partition and installing Ubuntu inside it. The best thing about Wubi is, it does not use virtual machine or any type of emulation. Thanks to Wubi, Ubuntu can be booted natively using Microsoft Windows boot loader.

When you are done experimenting with Ubuntu (who does?), or need to reclaim the hard disk space back, you can choose the uninstall button from the Windows Start Menu and everything will be removed, just as simple as that.

Wubi is one of the few application that made me wish that I have a Windows machine because I’m dying to try it out!

Wubi will be included with the upcoming Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) release, due in late April 2008.

Credits to fenris the 1337 pencacai for his original research on Wubi.

Visit Wubi official website here : http://wubi-installer.org/