Before stating to blog about today's topic, I would like to assure you that the MythTV setup part will come as soon as I get time to make some good screenshot and all. I'll also look to enter inside MythTV development soon... when the mid-term exams and homework will be done.
Today's topic is about a funny website that my friend François Proulx shown me a couple of week ago. The site is in fact a "Computer Science Papers Generator" it's really funny when you try it. But what is much more funny is when you read on the website and see that a paper generated by this system have been accepted in the WMSCI 2005 conference... a proof that sometimes selection committee are not looking to the contents of a submited document but to the format.
Anyway, try it, enter some friend names and you will laught. Sometimes you can even find similarity with some University Teacher in the use of BuzzWord ;)
jeudi 11 octobre 2007
mardi 25 septembre 2007
MythTV Setup (Part - 1)
Using a TV is something very trivial for everyone right now and for my roommate and I it was not fun at all. So, we built our "Uber Mega Cool Media Center" using MythTV and some pieces of hardware that was useless in the closet.
The MythTV hardware we have is :
- A WinFast K7S 741GXMG Motherboard holding an AMD Athlon XP 2400+
- 1024 MB of DDR333
- A SoundBlaster Live 5.1 that we use for the Digital Output on it
- An Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150 MCE-kit for the TV-Tuner and the built-in Mpeg2 Encoder
- An NVIDIA Geforce 6200 256MB with TV-OUT
- A Wireless card Microsoft MN-730 which have a Broadcom chipset on it.
- And an LG DVD Writer
When we first tried to build the MediaCenter we tough that using Linux MCE would be a good idea... well we tried to install it during 2 days !!! So, we then tried KnoppMyth ... there was always a problem with the kind of automatic hardware detection and everything went wrong each time we tried. The KnoppMyth was even worse, it fails to boot after the installation !!!
So my roommate and I glare at each other, and since we are two Linux administrator in our past time, we decide to stop trying to use and integrated solution and to build our own !
We used Kubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04 as a base system. We setup the Nvidia Proprietary Drivers for the graphics card, so we could have OpenGL acceleration for movie playback. It was so simple having everything working.
The remote that comes with the PVR is recognized using the driver lirc_mceusb2 so a simple modprobe did the job.
We then prepare our secondary disk to be mounted in " /media/data " because we will buy a new hard drive soon to replace the little 40Gig that holds our Movies for now and by doing a mount point it's easy in the configuration :)
We applied a so often forgotten philosophy... KISS which stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid that practically always lead to a very simple and efficient solution.
We added those repository:
Well for now I'll end it here but I should come more in details soon with screenshot and stuff. Anyway, it's so simple when you do it yourself and using the already made package that with the Hardware list in the beginning of this post you should be able to build your own right away.
Any question on some more specific aspect drop a comment I'll answer.
The MythTV hardware we have is :
- A WinFast K7S 741GXMG Motherboard holding an AMD Athlon XP 2400+
- 1024 MB of DDR333
- A SoundBlaster Live 5.1 that we use for the Digital Output on it
- An Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150 MCE-kit for the TV-Tuner and the built-in Mpeg2 Encoder
- An NVIDIA Geforce 6200 256MB with TV-OUT
- A Wireless card Microsoft MN-730 which have a Broadcom chipset on it.
- And an LG DVD Writer
When we first tried to build the MediaCenter we tough that using Linux MCE would be a good idea... well we tried to install it during 2 days !!! So, we then tried KnoppMyth ... there was always a problem with the kind of automatic hardware detection and everything went wrong each time we tried. The KnoppMyth was even worse, it fails to boot after the installation !!!
So my roommate and I glare at each other, and since we are two Linux administrator in our past time, we decide to stop trying to use and integrated solution and to build our own !
We used Kubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04 as a base system. We setup the Nvidia Proprietary Drivers for the graphics card, so we could have OpenGL acceleration for movie playback. It was so simple having everything working.
The remote that comes with the PVR is recognized using the driver lirc_mceusb2 so a simple modprobe did the job.
We then prepare our secondary disk to be mounted in " /media/data " because we will buy a new hard drive soon to replace the little 40Gig that holds our Movies for now and by doing a mount point it's easy in the configuration :)
We applied a so often forgotten philosophy... KISS which stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid that practically always lead to a very simple and efficient solution.
We added those repository:
deb http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ feisty free non-freeThis gave us the package needed to enable the MP3, Codecs and cool stuff needed when you want to use an *buntu distribution with multimedia. The last one gave us some updated packages for MythTV.
deb-src http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ feisty free non-free
#added mythbuntu repos
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mythbuntu/ubuntu feisty multiverse universe restricted main
Well for now I'll end it here but I should come more in details soon with screenshot and stuff. Anyway, it's so simple when you do it yourself and using the already made package that with the Hardware list in the beginning of this post you should be able to build your own right away.
Any question on some more specific aspect drop a comment I'll answer.
mercredi 22 août 2007
Quick launch ...
Well, well well... every Mac users should know Quicksilver, if not ... then you MUST check this.
Quicksilver is an apps that make you launch any application by simply tapping the firsts letters of its name. It's very usefull, and fast any hardcore computer users will become addicted! I will not describe all the possibility of Quicksilver there's a lot! but look at this overview from the official project's website.
But unfortunately this apps is only for OSX... True, but when an apps is as useful as Quicksilver, we can always expect to see some opensource project emerging, trying to fulfils the needs on other platforms. On Linux there's a project that is very similar (but still lack some finest) and is called Katapult. There's a feature I really like in Katapult that I did not found in Quicksilver and it is the integrated calculator.
Katapult and Quicksilver can also find a contact in your address book or a specific file name wich you can launch the application associated with it directly.
For the unfortunate that use the OS of Redmond there is Skylight.
Quicksilver is an apps that make you launch any application by simply tapping the firsts letters of its name. It's very usefull, and fast any hardcore computer users will become addicted! I will not describe all the possibility of Quicksilver there's a lot! but look at this overview from the official project's website.
But unfortunately this apps is only for OSX... True, but when an apps is as useful as Quicksilver, we can always expect to see some opensource project emerging, trying to fulfils the needs on other platforms. On Linux there's a project that is very similar (but still lack some finest) and is called Katapult. There's a feature I really like in Katapult that I did not found in Quicksilver and it is the integrated calculator.
Katapult and Quicksilver can also find a contact in your address book or a specific file name wich you can launch the application associated with it directly.
For the unfortunate that use the OS of Redmond there is Skylight.
mardi 21 août 2007
Interclue Firefox Addon ...
Today I would like introduce a firefox addon that I tough is usefull. It's called Interclue. "But what is Interclue doing ?" you may ask, Interclue is showing you what's hiding behind a link. It's very nice, look at this screenshot!
I simply pointed my cursor at the "Tableau de bord" link and hit crtl. It's cool!
I found this addon when I was reading my Linux news on linux.com
Let me know if you like or hate it.
I simply pointed my cursor at the "Tableau de bord" link and hit crtl. It's cool!
I found this addon when I was reading my Linux news on linux.com
Let me know if you like or hate it.
mercredi 15 août 2007
Biggest Party at ÉTS
Well it's a long time since I write here, I'm sorry about that. I prefer not to write instead of saying something not interesting. By the way I wish a lot of persons will come to the biggest party at ÉTS (my engineering school) so here is the flyer to give you more information. But I must warn you that it's really the best school party in Montréal !
If you're a lady, bring another one and you have a 2/1 ticket!
September 14 !!!
jeudi 12 juillet 2007
Social networking ...
Today, I would like to blog about social networking... In this era of Web2.0 and internet as a Second Life the website for social networking are becoming more and more populars. For those that have no idea of what I'm talking about... well these sites gives you the opportunity to keep in contact with a person you met at a meeting, like LinkedIn that is used more as a business relationship tools. Well this could be boring, but is a good help when you're searching for a job. But there is also some site extremely popular that made you addicted to it ... I'm talking about Facebook. This site give you the possibility to find some lost friends of the elementary school, keep contact with everyone, join network as your feeling and ... maybe ... meeting some new and interesting persons. All this in a fun way, you can even do a food war 0_o or being a zombie and bitting your friends...
You remember I talk about a mysterious girl I seen in Subway this week? Well, I was too shy and been unable to talk to her even for simply telling her that she was beautiful... I was angry about myself and asked me why I was so afraid ... anyway. I was on facebook yesterday, searching how many persons had "The Island" in their favorite movie list, then I see an interesting picture of a nice looking girl but on her pic she were looking sad, so I took all my bravery and decided to send her a quick message telling that she's cute and that I hope this will made her smile... I had nothing to lose at all ! She answered with a nice thanks and a smile. I really don't know why I was so afraid in the first place... The G/F of a friend yesterday said me that I did a mistake when I send the message to the facebook girl... she said me that I should have used an open question so it would have let the doors open for more than one exchange of message... Damn! I'll know for next time... Isn't it by doing mistake that we improve ourself ?
Sylvain
You remember I talk about a mysterious girl I seen in Subway this week? Well, I was too shy and been unable to talk to her even for simply telling her that she was beautiful... I was angry about myself and asked me why I was so afraid ... anyway. I was on facebook yesterday, searching how many persons had "The Island" in their favorite movie list, then I see an interesting picture of a nice looking girl but on her pic she were looking sad, so I took all my bravery and decided to send her a quick message telling that she's cute and that I hope this will made her smile... I had nothing to lose at all ! She answered with a nice thanks and a smile. I really don't know why I was so afraid in the first place... The G/F of a friend yesterday said me that I did a mistake when I send the message to the facebook girl... she said me that I should have used an open question so it would have let the doors open for more than one exchange of message... Damn! I'll know for next time... Isn't it by doing mistake that we improve ourself ?
Sylvain
mercredi 11 juillet 2007
A friend got a MBP 2.4Ghz...
Well well...
I said in my first blog that I was the proud owner of a New and awesome MacBook Pro 2.2Ghz Santa Rosa. I was also happy to tease my friends with it! It works, one of my friend , who was using an iBook before, bough the model that come just over mine ... so it's an MBP 2.4 Ghz Santa Rosa with the 15" screen... the only difference with mine is the .2 added to the processor speed and the price of the beast... but well now he can tease me a bit. Talking about Mac... I'm seeing more and more people using Mac computer these days, it's probably due to the fact that with the Intel processor and the possibility to use Windows on a Mac there is no more reason to NOT buying a Mac. There's always people saying that buying a Mac is always more expensive than buying a branded computer... well they probably never took time to really do a comparison in price vs stuff. In my case the Thinkpad T61 would have also been a good choice, but the look of the laptop, his weight, the software that comes with it and the fact that the T61 is not currently offer in Canada (basing this on the fact that lenovo's canada website doesn't have the model) was all factor that made me choose Apple. Also, I goes directly to the Apple Store in Laval and got the computer directly with a vendor that was looking like a good person... not someone like in FutureShop where you always seems to be someone they could trick to get a better commission... and I'm not sure if I could have easily go to a store to buy a T61?!
Now lets blog about something else, did you ever took the Bus or the Subway and see a beautiful girl but are always to shy to tell her only that you think she is pleasure for the eyes... For me it happens all the time, I don't ever know why I can't stop to think that she will be mad if I tell her ... What the hell I'm thinking? Why would a girl be angry or mad if a guy said her that she is beautiful in a respectable way ? Damn! Next time I'll have to kick my butt and tell her !
Notes: As seen in a comment, the 2.4Ghz version of the MBP have a 256mb video card... so my friend can tease me a little bit more... ;)
Notes 2 : Ah well .... he also got a bigger hard drive... he can tease me... but I'm happy with mine :)
I said in my first blog that I was the proud owner of a New and awesome MacBook Pro 2.2Ghz Santa Rosa. I was also happy to tease my friends with it! It works, one of my friend , who was using an iBook before, bough the model that come just over mine ... so it's an MBP 2.4 Ghz Santa Rosa with the 15" screen... the only difference with mine is the .2 added to the processor speed and the price of the beast... but well now he can tease me a bit. Talking about Mac... I'm seeing more and more people using Mac computer these days, it's probably due to the fact that with the Intel processor and the possibility to use Windows on a Mac there is no more reason to NOT buying a Mac. There's always people saying that buying a Mac is always more expensive than buying a branded computer... well they probably never took time to really do a comparison in price vs stuff. In my case the Thinkpad T61 would have also been a good choice, but the look of the laptop, his weight, the software that comes with it and the fact that the T61 is not currently offer in Canada (basing this on the fact that lenovo's canada website doesn't have the model) was all factor that made me choose Apple. Also, I goes directly to the Apple Store in Laval and got the computer directly with a vendor that was looking like a good person... not someone like in FutureShop where you always seems to be someone they could trick to get a better commission... and I'm not sure if I could have easily go to a store to buy a T61?!
Now lets blog about something else, did you ever took the Bus or the Subway and see a beautiful girl but are always to shy to tell her only that you think she is pleasure for the eyes... For me it happens all the time, I don't ever know why I can't stop to think that she will be mad if I tell her ... What the hell I'm thinking? Why would a girl be angry or mad if a guy said her that she is beautiful in a respectable way ? Damn! Next time I'll have to kick my butt and tell her !
Notes: As seen in a comment, the 2.4Ghz version of the MBP have a 256mb video card... so my friend can tease me a little bit more... ;)
Notes 2 : Ah well .... he also got a bigger hard drive... he can tease me... but I'm happy with mine :)
mardi 10 juillet 2007
First blog...
Hello everyone, welcome to my blog
I could have made a link between this blog and the HelloWorld thing that you do each time you try to learn software programming. But this would have been stealing of a friends idea.
Well... I'm a French speaking person, so probably you'll notice a lot of errors inside my English text. I'm trying to improve my skills in english writing so I though that making a blog would be a good place to begin. If you see errors inside my text only drop me a line in the comments and tell me how I could improve. It would be kind of you.
Hummm, what should I tell you now ? Maybe who I am ? Ok, like said above, I'm a french speaking person and I live in Canada... well Quebec offcourse ! I'm a student at École de technologie supérieure in Montreal. But being a student was not enough so I decided to give some (a lot) time to a research project called SONIA. Well, I said research project because in many university a project like this one is called a research and get fund for it... but our school think differently... SONIA stands for "Système d'Opération Nautique Intelligent et Autonome" the name is french because we are all french students. The project consist of building an efficient AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) for participating to a competition held in San Diego each year. The AUV and 8 of my teammate are in San Diego right now trying to bring the first place to Montreal. You can see more about this on SONIA's own blog. Enough for the project, lets "blog" about what I'm studying... Technology! I have a DEC in informatics and I started in Software Engineering at the University but could not find everything that I like in it so I switched to IT Engineering which is a lot more technologically related than SE. We learn stuff in High Level networking, Image processing, multimedia database... Image and video compression and management technology inside the enterprise.
Beside this, I'm a Linux fan and now ... I must admit ... a Mac fan. I bough a MacBook Pro 2.2Ghz Santa Rosa and it's one of the best Laptop I ever had! The price was High but it's because I took the 3 years Apple Care and I had to pay for the iPod nano that comes with it. I'm now so a Mac fan that I surprised myself listening the keynotes ... Well Leopard, the next version of OSX will be pretty cool... but there's not much features that did not exist already in Linux. Apple is putting Space in front line and said that it's an INNOVATIVE feature ... bullshit I had virtual desktop on my Linux box since 2001 and this is only because I began to play with linux in 2001... In my opinion what will be the best features is Time Machine it looks pretty awesome! I can't wait to try it !
Well that's enough for now ... I must return to work. I'm doing an internship at Info-Electronics System at Dorval building a Verification and Validation Tracking System using Java and GWT
I could have made a link between this blog and the HelloWorld thing that you do each time you try to learn software programming. But this would have been stealing of a friends idea.
Well... I'm a French speaking person, so probably you'll notice a lot of errors inside my English text. I'm trying to improve my skills in english writing so I though that making a blog would be a good place to begin. If you see errors inside my text only drop me a line in the comments and tell me how I could improve. It would be kind of you.
Hummm, what should I tell you now ? Maybe who I am ? Ok, like said above, I'm a french speaking person and I live in Canada... well Quebec offcourse ! I'm a student at École de technologie supérieure in Montreal. But being a student was not enough so I decided to give some (a lot) time to a research project called SONIA. Well, I said research project because in many university a project like this one is called a research and get fund for it... but our school think differently... SONIA stands for "Système d'Opération Nautique Intelligent et Autonome" the name is french because we are all french students. The project consist of building an efficient AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) for participating to a competition held in San Diego each year. The AUV and 8 of my teammate are in San Diego right now trying to bring the first place to Montreal. You can see more about this on SONIA's own blog. Enough for the project, lets "blog" about what I'm studying... Technology! I have a DEC in informatics and I started in Software Engineering at the University but could not find everything that I like in it so I switched to IT Engineering which is a lot more technologically related than SE. We learn stuff in High Level networking, Image processing, multimedia database... Image and video compression and management technology inside the enterprise.
Beside this, I'm a Linux fan and now ... I must admit ... a Mac fan. I bough a MacBook Pro 2.2Ghz Santa Rosa and it's one of the best Laptop I ever had! The price was High but it's because I took the 3 years Apple Care and I had to pay for the iPod nano that comes with it. I'm now so a Mac fan that I surprised myself listening the keynotes ... Well Leopard, the next version of OSX will be pretty cool... but there's not much features that did not exist already in Linux. Apple is putting Space in front line and said that it's an INNOVATIVE feature ... bullshit I had virtual desktop on my Linux box since 2001 and this is only because I began to play with linux in 2001... In my opinion what will be the best features is Time Machine it looks pretty awesome! I can't wait to try it !
Well that's enough for now ... I must return to work. I'm doing an internship at Info-Electronics System at Dorval building a Verification and Validation Tracking System using Java and GWT
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