ffmpeg and FLV on Ubuntu

Wow, ffmpeg is really great for converting multimedia.  Unfortunately, the support for MP3 audio doesn’t appear available by default.  Sure, it can decode MP3 audio and write to an MP3 container, but what about having an actual MP3 codec available?

sudo apt-get purge ffmpeg
sudo apt-get install libavcodec-unstripped-52 libavdevice-unstripped-52 libavformat-unstripped-52 libavutil-unstripped-49 libpostproc-unstripped-51 libswscale-unstripped-0 ffmpeg

As a little bonus, there’s a number of other codecs that come along with it too (xvid etc).  I’m not too fussed on them but now I can use -acodec libmp3lame as my audio codec and have the FLV outputted with MP3 audio …

in Linux · Tue 22 September 2009

Buildout: the biggest problems have the simplest answers…

..and how true that is.  Today’s time consumer is directly related to just 1 misplaced line of a buildout configuration (and presumably something that’s changed somewhere else).

in Buildout · Thu 03 September 2009

Find and replace across files - Linux command line

Today’s interesting post concerns finding and replacing terms across multiple files via a simple command.  Thanks to this great blog post, it all comes down to one single line.  I had found a previously-useful line of code, but the problem with that one was the fact that it used the find command.  The problem with that is that if you do a wildcard search for * in a directory, it’ll give you back ‘.’ as a result.  Trying to work with that just wasn’t happening.

So, without further ado, the command (replacing ‘search’ with your search term and ‘target …

in Linux · Mon 06 July 2009

Virtualenv, Plone, and Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty

What a complicated situation it is trying to use all of the above-mentioned pieces of software together. In all seriousness, Virtualenv is now appearing to be the best thing since sliced bread for me to help out with making Plone/Zope usable under Jaunty.

By default, as everyone should know by now, a whole bunch of old Python 2.4 packages got removed from Jaunty, throwing us Plone developers into peril.  Well, those of us who hadn’t discovered the joys of virtualenv yet, that is.

Here’s how to convert an existing buildout folder over to Virtualenv without too …

in Plone · Fri 12 June 2009

Ubuntu: Dual Monitors & Separating Tasks

Today’s puzzle: how to get Ubuntu (specifically GNOME Panels as it turns out) to use my new dual-monitor setup and show only the tasks from one monitor on that monitor’s panel. Sure, people had mentioned that it was possible (everywhere) but noone actually seemed to take the time to mention how. That’s when I found this: http://www.lloydleung.com/2006/10/14/gnome-multiple-monitor-taskbar-window-listing/ so cheers go to Lloyd there. Still works (and should be fine on any version from at least now on):

1. Right click on anywhere on the launchbar, click “New Panel”
2. Drag that to …

in Linux · Wed 04 February 2009

Linux: Graphics Card Woes & BIOS Issues

…and I had thought that installing a graphics card in a computer was as easy as opening the case, inserting the card, and booting the machine (then Xorg config etc). Well, to tell the truth, I just moved my HDD, peripherals (gfx card included) to a new box - now a Dell OptiPlex 755. But, it’s not that easy if you can’t boot your Ubuntu 8.10 OS!

The computer kept spitting this message out, even though it just worked a few days ago:

15.848000 NVRM: This PCI I/O region assigned to your NVIDIA device is invalid …

in IT, Linux, Work · Tue 27 January 2009

Plone: Python Eggs And Development

Welcome to the new year! It’s the start of another journey around the sun and the beginning of work for me. Whilst I’m the only one actually working around here today, I thought I’d take the chance and update with some useful info:

in Plone · Fri 02 January 2009

Unix: SSH Port Forwarding

So it’s not that special and I bet 1000 people have already posted the same details. Still, it’s cool and I need a place to record my thoughts about this:

ssh host.name -L YYYY:other.host:ZZZZ

Essentially, this means logging into the first machine and creating port YYYY on the local machine as the port ZZZZ from other.host

Works well.

in Linux · Thu 18 December 2008