Deftly.net

FunPidgin patch for Debian’s Pidgin Package

This is a quick patch I whipped up to bring funpidgin to debian’s pidgin.  Applying is pretty simple:

apt-get build-dep pidgin && apt-get source pidgin

cd pidgin-2.4.1

wget http://www.deftly.net/25_fun_pidgin.patch -O debian/patches/25_fun_pidgin.patch

./debian/rules binary

dpkg -i ../*.deb

Just make sure you remove the previous version of pidgin prior to installing the patched version - just for good measure

Backups using rsync and ssh

Managing multiple *nix machines can often be a pain in the arse.  Backups are a must.  I have written a basic backup script to meet my basic needs.  It uses ssh and rsync, is capable of using ssh-agent - allowing for passphrase / phrase-less key usage ( handy for making it run out of cron ), runs pre/post operations - good for db backups.  It is not supported, and will only chaged when I need changes :D!

The entire setup, including example pre/post scripts can be found here. If you find it useful, feel free to send me a comment or suggestion ;).

Cheers › Continue reading

Convert AVI to PS3 Compatable mp4

I recently purchased a PlayStation 3! When I booted it up I noticed the “Find Media Server” option. This got my juices flowing. I always have to connect my laptop to the TV when I want to watch movies from my network share ( I use samba to distribute them to the many computers at my house ). This gets very annoying, especially when using WiFi.

Enter Media Tomb, a UPnP ( Universal Plug and Play ) media server! MT is pretty easy to configure so I won’t go into that here.

So now I have a functional media server, presenting all my media to the PS3! GREAT! EFF! Wait… None of the movies play… SIGH.. I quickly pulled out the PS3 owners manual and checked for compatible video formats. Alas one of my ~70 movies where in the correct format.

Enter mplayer faac ffmpeg bc MP4Box x264 and Jarkko’s nifty script! On Debian, installation of the of the needed apps couldn’t be simpler apt-get install XXXXX and wham you are done and ready to transcode!

Mac OSX, however, is a different story.

First you need to have Mac Ports along with the following ports: wxWidgets libtheora spidermonkey freetype openjpeg faad2 XviD ffmpeg faac x264 . Once you have all the listed applications installed, you can start building GPAC ( this is where you get MP4Box ).

Building GPAC:

First off we need to set some variables so everything knows about the headers and libraries for the ports we have installed.

export CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -I/opt/local/include"
export CPPFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
export LDFLAGS="-L/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib -L/opt/local/lib"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:/opt/local/lib/pkgconfig"
export ACLOCAL_FLAGS="$ACLOCAL_FLAGS -I /opt/local/share/aclocal"

Now build GPAC with ./configure --prefix=/opt/local && make && make install. As long as you have your $PATH setup correctly everything should be in place for you to convert your movies!

Chromium for Debian

Being board is no fun… It can only lead to masturbation, evil deeds, or punching babies. Games are for sure a good way to prevent masturbation/ED’s/punching babies. Sadly, Debian Etch does not have Chromium, one of the better SDL games available….. So after a short sobbing period .. I decided to do something about it! Here are some packages I built from sid.

chromium_0.9.12-13_i386.deb
chromium-data_0.9.12-3_all.deb

Just download them and run :
dpkg -i *.deb

Cheers,
Qbit

Linux Home Automation

Using a simple $30 kit from x10.com, a bluetooth dongle and a bluetooth capable cell phone, one can easily setup some slick home automation.

A small application called bluemon allows for your linux machine to watch for bluetooth devices and run commands upon a quality of single you specify. The X10 kit I purchased came with a serial transmitter. This allows me to use bluemon to call bottlerocket, kicking on my lights when I enter a room.

Here is my config file for bluemon ( only changes shown ):

BLUEMON_ENABLE=’yes’
BLUETOOTHID=’aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff’
DISCONNECTHACK=-d

Once you have bluemon running, simply run the “bluemon-client” command. I use something like this:

bluemon-client -b aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff -u on -d off

off / on are simply shell scripts ( in $PATH ) that look kinda like this:

br -x /dev/ttyS0 -N
br -x /dev/ttyS0 -F

Good Times.