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Skype Video on Ubuntu

Logitech USB: $ lsusb ... Bus 001 Device 004: ID 046d:08d9 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam IM/Connect Bus 001 Device 005: ID 046d:c31d Logitech, Inc. Bus 001 Device 006: ID 046d:c05b Logitech, Inc. It works with v4l2 sudo gstreamer-properties But Skype 2.2Beta failed to show video. The workaround: LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype

MacBook Pro F11 and F12 on Ubuntu 11.10

After installation, all function keys work out of box except for F11 and F12, which are used for mouse emulation by default. To get those keys back: sudo apt-get remove mouseemu

Online Booking Is Safe

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was recently found dead in his hotel room in Dubai. Dubai authorities stated they were ruling the death a homicide and according to BBC : Investigators have also discovered that 14 of the suspects had used credit cards issued by MetaBank - a small bank based in the US state of Iowa - to book hotel rooms and pay for air travel.

In-Memory DB, H2 and Python

Our log data is sent to a log server which then saves it in a PostgreSQL database. To prevent the database from growing too large, we periodically remove data older than 24 hours from the database and save it for future query. However, queries on the remaining data is still not fast enough for realtime monitoring. Besides, the vacuum process of PostgreSQL fails to handle gracefully the large number of deletes and slows down our system significantly when it runs. I'd like to replace the whole logging system with a Hadoop-based system. But right now, I need something that can be up and running in 2 to 3 days and has no or minimal impact on the rest of the system. The log server would save all log data into log files. At the same time, it runs a embedded in-memory database that has the most recently log data for our realtime monitoring applications to query. Of the final choices of in-memory databases in H2 , HSQLDB and Apache Derby , I decide to go with H2. Since our monitor...

Setting up BandLuxe C179 on Karmic

I've recently signed up with Singtel's mobile broadband, which uses a BandLuxe C179 HSDPA USB modem. Hers's how I set it up on Ubuntu 9.10: Download Linux driver from http://www.bandrich.com. The file name of the download "C270-Eee-PC_Linux-driver.zip" suggests it's intended for C270. The product id in bandluxe.fdi is wrong, change it to: <match key="usb.vendor_id" int="0x1a8d"> <match key="usb.product_id" int="0x1009"> The kernel module option.ko that comes with the driver doesn't work with 2.6.31 kernel. And we don't need it anyway, so comment out its installation from eeepc3g.sh: #echo "Backup file option.ko" #cp -v ${MODDIR}/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/option.ko ./option-eeepc.ko #echo "Add support of Bandluxe Data Card" #cp -v option-bandluxe.ko ${MODDIR}/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/option.ko Install the driver: $ sudo ./eeepc3g.sh $ sudo modprobe option Plug in the modem. $ lsusb...

Use Relative Path in Free-form Netbeans Projects

For free-form projects, Netbeans uses absolute path for project directory in project.xml : <properties> <property name="project.dir">/Users/yili/Work/homecamera/WowzaStreaming</property> <property name="ant.script">${project.dir}/build.xml</property> <properties> All paths in project.xml are relative to the project folder, which is the folder that contains the nbproject folder. Thus changing the above to the following makes my project works on all platforms regardless where the project is located: <properties> <property name="project.dir">../../../WowzaStreaming</property> <property name="ant.script">${project.dir}/build.xml</property> <properties>

The Best Farewell

It has always been my ambition to die in harness with my head face down on a keyboard and my nose caught between two of the keys -- Isaac Asimov