Along with all the videos of all FOSDEM editions, the FOSDEM team put the 2009 videos on YouTube. So here is the video about Gemvid: [youtube &hl=en&fs=1] The presentation in PDF is still available from the Gemvid webpage (and in live here).
Mantis is a free web-based bug tracker. As most web trackers, it uses e-mail to notify testers and developers about the evolutions of issues they have reported or they just follow. For that purpose, Mantis uses Codeworx PHP Mailer class that gives you the opportunity to use the PHP mail() function, sendmail or a SMTP server to send those e-mails. The use of the PHP mail() function is the default option. Unfortunately, some web hosting companies limits the PHP mail() function by forbidding the use of the 4th and 5th (optional) parameters. The result is that you can’t use the e-mail functionality of PHP mailer / Mantis because they use the 4th parameter. ...
Fosdem is “a two-day event organized by volunteers to promote the widespread use of Free and Open Source software”. I will be presenting Gemvid during a lightning talk on Saturday :-)
Here is a short script (1.6kb) to add a timestamp on all PNG pictures in a directory. It requires Python and the Python Image Library ( PIL). In order to use it, modify some parameters in the beginning to suit your needs (images directory, font file and size, etc.) and launch ./timestampFiles.py. Here is a before/after example (size of pictures is reduced to fit in this blog): ...
Following my previous post, I attached a video camera to the composite input of my tv tuner. One good thing I didn’t noticed yesterday is that mplayer can be told to directly use pvr:// as a source instead of the generic tv:// (with many options). So you just have to enter mplayer pvr:// -tv device=/dev/video1:input=0 in order to watch tv. Noticed the input=0 above? This tells the tuner to take the video signal from the tv (read the mplayer man page to see how to change the channel). Now, since I connected my video camera to the composite video in, I need to tell mplayer to use it with input=1. One last thing: taking a screenshot in mplayer is done by pressing the ’s’ key (with option -vf screenshot. In summary, the image below was taken with mplayer pvr:// -tv device=/dev/video1:input=1:noaudio -vo x11 -vf screenshot (camera facing the screen). ...
I recently got a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 (a TV tuner, video recorder and FM receiver) because I read it was well supported on GNU/Linux. The following post explains how I installed it on a Fedora Core 9. If you want to install it with another Linux distribution, some information may vary but most of the following steps will be exactly the same. First connect the USB device, the list of USB devices shows my system has recognised it: ...
A small post just to keep this command at hand: mplayer -fps 30 -tv driver=v4l:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video1 tv:// This allows you to watch what your webcam “sees” (provided it uses a video4linux webcam). Btw, Cheese is funny to use too! I was also trying to find a decent Python library for video4linux but I only found outdated ones ( libfg, 2003, and pyv4l, 2002). I guess I’ll have to use some C library for a small project I’ll tell you about later ;-)
Thanks to the free software project lilURL and one of its implementation at ur1, the problem with TinyURL is solved. Thanks Alexandre for the info. :-) So now http://www.poirrier.be/~jean-etienne/ can be short ( http://ur1.ca/04d) and free at the same time: free to use, and free to look at source code. Since I’m never fully satisfied (hmm, never say never), the next step would be an implementation of some “intelligence” in these short URLs (see Udi’s post). And since I never have time (or less and less), I’m a bit sad not to have that time to code a solution (which should be quite easy).
The problem with TinyURL.com is that its source code is not free. And I can’t find any other open services/projects that offers the same features (1). I realized this when trying to add a long link in a Twitter update (2, 3). A maximum of 140 characters doesn’t allow you to add much text around. And it seems that a lot of Twitter users are using the TinyURL.com service which allows you to translate a small URL it gives you to the full, “regular” URL. For example, http://www.poirrier.be/~jean-etienne/ (37 characters) becomes http://tinyurl.com/6kq84z (25 characters). ...
A few days ago, I was sad to see that the Association Electronique Libre (AEL) website was down and only replaced by two measly tags. For those who didn’t know it: The Association Electronique Libre is a belgian association protecting the fundamental rights in the information society. The Association Electronique Libre supports the freedoms of speech, press, and association on the Internet and any electronical mediums, the right to use encryption software for private communication, the right to write software unimpeded by private monopolies, the right to access and preserve public domain and free digital information. (from an old copy of the AEL website) ...