Tag: Amazon.com
Check it out: Quick Look: Grade Ticker…
by JonBot on Apr.13, 2010, under Pings
Check it out: Quick Look: Grade Ticker (Video Demo) bit.ly/dtdpQK
MMPORG Economics: City of Heroes Boosters
by Jon Westfall on Apr.21, 2009, under Other Things
So here
Jon’s Linux Experiment – Part 3 – Watching DVDs
by Jon Westfall on Jan.07, 2009, under Other Things
This last Christmas (the one a few weeks ago), my totally awesome in-laws bought me something every geek should own, Star Trek: The Next Generation – that’s right, all 179 stupendous episodes (Yes, even “The Naked Now” counts as stupendous… just barely). So when I started messing around with my new Linux machine, I wanted to watch my TNG as I had with the old Compaq.
Which brings me to a funny point about Ubuntu: An almost fanatical devotion to Open Source. Open Source means software has to be licensed under particular licenses – and that little piece of software that actually plays back an encrypted (e.g. store-bought) DVD is not under the right sort of license. Therefore, it isn’t available out of the box. Boo! (for the pain, not for Open Source).
Fortunately many other geeks have had the same desire to watch Star Trek and have put together a plethora of posts like this one explaining what to do to solve the problem. I could post to any one of them, but figured I’d write it up again with the help of two websites I found particularly helpful – this one and this one. For Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) here’s what I did to get DVD playback going as well as playing it with my media browser of choice, VLC.
1. Add the Medibuntu sources to your aptitude sources list:
sudo wget www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/intrepid.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list<br /><br /><font face="sans-serif">2. Run this pretty awesome command line and answer "yes" when it prompts you:<br /><br /></font>sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update<br /><br /><font face="sans-serif">3. Install the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.videolan.org/developers/libdvdcss.html">libdvdcss2</a> package, which you need to view DVDs</font><br /><br /><font face="Courier New">sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2</font><br /><br /><font face="sans-serif">4. (Optional) Install another package that will let you play non-free codecs that you may want to view if you're coming from a windows world (such as Real player, quicktime, etc...)</font><br />
sudo apt-get install w32codecs
5. (Optional) Install VLC and make it your default video player for DVDs
sudo apt-get -y install vlc
6. Change file associations to VLC (if you installed it in step 5)
a) Edit /etc/gnome/defaults.list and change “totem.desktop” to “vlc.desktop” in the line containing “x-content/video-dvd)
b) In Nautilus go to Edit, then Preferences. On the Media tab, select VLC as the drop down choice for DVD-Video.
c) Right click on Applications and choose “edit Menus”. Find VLC and change it’s source to vlc %m instead of vlc %f
So there you have it, how I was able to get down to enjoying ST:TNG on my new Ubuntu system. One rather strange caveat though: My DVD drive decided to spin like a freaking monster while playing the first DVD. I realized it was spinning as fast as possible, not spun down when it was just going along at a steady pace. I used the following command to change it to 4x which was fast enough for all my purposes, and made it sound less like my laptop was planning to take off:
sudo hdparm -E 4 /dev/scd0
You can always change it back later by changing the 4 to whatever multiplier you’d like (e.g. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc…)
Delorme Street Atlas USA 2008 Reviewed
by Jon Westfall on Sep.26, 2007, under Windows Phone Thoughts
Product Category: Mapping / GPS Software
Manufacturer: Delorme
Where to Buy: Amazon [Affiliate]
Price: $36.95 USD
System Requirements: Windows XP / 2000 / Vista, DVD Drive
Pros:
Price; Route on desktop Or PDA; No cumbersome copy protection / activation required.
Cons:
Unpolished interface; Unintuitive; Unable to copy to storage card.
Summary:
GPS Mapping software for Pocket PC can be downright expensive! In addition, it usually includes no desktop interface with which to route and plan longer trips. Delorme Street Atlas USA 2008 provides not only a desktop interface, routing on the device, and map downloads to Palm, PPC, or iPod – it provides all of this under $40. But does it do the job right, or does the price show through in a mediocre job?
Read on for the full review! [more]
title="Read the full story on the Jon from PPCT site." href="http://feeds.pocketpcthoughts.com/~r/pocketpcthoughts/~3/161563176/articles.php" >Read More at Original Site
(continue reading…)
Ultimate Link List
by Jon Westfall on Jun.02, 2007, under Articles
- TrendMicro’s Online Virus Scanner (Housecall)
- John Savill’s FAQ For Windows
- SpyBot Search & Destroy
- LavaSoft (Makers of Ad-aware) http://www.lavasoft.de/
- Sites Good For Hardware Purchasing
- http://www.nextag.com (Comparison Shopping)
- http://www.froogle.com (Comparison Shopping)
- http://www.pricewatch.com (Comparison Shopping)
- http://www.tigerdirect.com (Fairly Good Deals, Nice Selection)
- http://www.cdw.com (Selection Great, Prices Not – but if you need it…)
- http://www.amazon.com (Fairly Good Selection)
- http://www.slickdeals.net (Some great deals!)
- Adware, Spyware, and other unwanted “malware” – and how to remove them
- Download.com – Find Interesting Software http://www.download.com
- Bootdisk.com – Will Make bootable floppys / CDs you can use for troubleshooting or new operating system installations http://www.bootdisk.com
- Experts-Exchange.com http://www.experts-exchange.com/
- SourceForge.net (Open Source (i.e. Free) Software for a variety of tasks)
- MCSE World by Daniel Petri http://www.petri.co.il/
- Forget A Windows Administrator Password? http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm
- How To Install Windows XP: http://www.petri.co.il/install_windows_xp_pro.htm
- Emergency Boot CD’s (These can be used to boot into diagnostic and recovery tools)
- Burn It & Boot It Linux Distributions (Can be fun to play with, and useful)
- Broadband Forums – Troubleshooting & Overall Internet Support
- Linux Resources (If you’re interested in playing with it)
- Windows NT / 2000 / 2003 / XP Admin Knowledge Base
- Microsoft Support http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
- Google (Use Direct Quotes and Advanced Search to get best results)
- LogMeIn.com – Remote System Administration for Free or Reasonable Prices
- Sites for Fun & Relaxation
- http://www.snopes.com (Also a good virus hoax info site)
- http://www.bash.org (Humorous IRC / IM Quotes)
- http://www.fark.com (Humorous News Items From Around the Web)
- http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com (Interested in mobile devices?)
- http://www.imdb.com (Internet Movie Database – Great Time Waster)
- http://www.hackaday.com (Various hacks & mods, great time wasting here as well!)
- http://www.techcomedy.com (Comic Relief for those of us in IT)
http://www.trillian.cc (The Best Instant Messenger Client on the Web – Nix the ads, bulk, and junk of AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo!)
- The Hipster PDA (For those of you who don't need any more)
Ultimate Link Listing Compiled by Jon Westfall (jon@jonwestfall.com) Distribute as you like, yet please keep this note on here so that people may send me more great links!
(continue reading…)
Ultimate Link List
by Jon Westfall on Jun.02, 2007, under Articles
- TrendMicro’s Online Virus Scanner (Housecall)
- John Savill’s FAQ For Windows
- SpyBot Search & Destroy
- LavaSoft (Makers of Ad-aware) http://www.lavasoft.de/
- Sites Good For Hardware Purchasing
- http://www.nextag.com (Comparison Shopping)
- http://www.froogle.com (Comparison Shopping)
- http://www.pricewatch.com (Comparison Shopping)
- http://www.tigerdirect.com (Fairly Good Deals, Nice Selection)
- http://www.cdw.com (Selection Great, Prices Not – but if you need it…)
- http://www.amazon.com (Fairly Good Selection)
- http://www.slickdeals.net (Some great deals!)
- Adware, Spyware, and other unwanted “malware” – and how to remove them
- Download.com – Find Interesting Software http://www.download.com
- Bootdisk.com – Will Make bootable floppys / CDs you can use for troubleshooting or new operating system installations http://www.bootdisk.com
- Experts-Exchange.com http://www.experts-exchange.com/
- SourceForge.net (Open Source (i.e. Free) Software for a variety of tasks)
- MCSE World by Daniel Petri http://www.petri.co.il/
- Forget A Windows Administrator Password? http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm
- How To Install Windows XP: http://www.petri.co.il/install_windows_xp_pro.htm
- Emergency Boot CD’s (These can be used to boot into diagnostic and recovery tools)
- Burn It & Boot It Linux Distributions (Can be fun to play with, and useful)
- Broadband Forums – Troubleshooting & Overall Internet Support
- Linux Resources (If you’re interested in playing with it)
- Windows NT / 2000 / 2003 / XP Admin Knowledge Base
- Microsoft Support http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
- Google (Use Direct Quotes and Advanced Search to get best results)
- LogMeIn.com – Remote System Administration for Free or Reasonable Prices
- Sites for Fun & Relaxation
- http://www.snopes.com (Also a good virus hoax info site)
- http://www.bash.org (Humorous IRC / IM Quotes)
- http://www.fark.com (Humorous News Items From Around the Web)
- http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com (Interested in mobile devices?)
- http://www.imdb.com (Internet Movie Database – Great Time Waster)
- http://www.hackaday.com (Various hacks & mods, great time wasting here as well!)
- http://www.techcomedy.com (Comic Relief for those of us in IT)
http://www.trillian.cc (The Best Instant Messenger Client on the Web – Nix the ads, bulk, and junk of AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo!)
- The Hipster PDA (For those of you who don't need any more)
Ultimate Link Listing Compiled by Jon Westfall (jon@jonwestfall.com) Distribute as you like, yet please keep this note on here so that people may send me more great links!
(continue reading…)
Gift Ideas
by Jon Westfall on Dec.25, 2006, under Other Things
People have been asking me for gift ideas for my birthday and christmas. So if you’re one of them, check out the following gift lists:
Amazon
Or
ThinkGeek
Or (If you REALLY like me)
This ultra cool item
Thanks to everyone who cares about getting me a gift! If you’re also shopping for my lovely wife, her Amazon Wishlist is also available.
Note: This list is normally hidden, however I bring it out around xmas time over here at LJ. If you’re looking to get me a gift any other time of the year, this info is also on JonWestfall.Org
