VLC 0.9

0.9 seems to utilize the system much better and can get from

http://ppa.launchpad.net/c-korn/ubuntu hardy main

Mac and NTFS

Found this two utilities which allow writing to NTFS on a Mac.

http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/
http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/

Handbrake

One of my grieves on Linux is video encoding. I sure Linux does have lot of tools for encoding, manipulating videos, however, most of them are command line utilities. I can get by with command line, but would much prefer if I don't need to use one. Anyway, finally, Handbrake has arrived to Ubuntu. To install it, you simply add the necessary repository to your sources.list, and off you go:

https://edge.launchpad.net/~handbrake-ubuntu/+archive/ppa

Happy encoding!

CUE+FLAC playback with Audacious

I finally found the solution for playing back CUE+FLAC files! Here is the solution. First you install audacious, and then install its extra plugin package called audacious-plugins-extra. After, run audacious and open its preference. Under the audio option, deselect all options under the Format Detection. That is it. You can now play CUE+FLAC files!

necflash

I have tried to flash my new NEC with RPC-1 firmware. However, every time I tried it, it skipped the actual writing part after I answered Y to the agreement. After numerous retry, I finally found the right switch (well at least it worked for me). Here you go:

sudo ./necflash -flash -s <firmware file> <device>

The -s switch implicitly agrees the license agreement, and left with the prompt to confirm the writing process. This allowed to me to proceed the writing!

DVD playback

To enable DVD playback, try these:

sudo apt-get install totem-xine libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdread3

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

OpenOffice 3

I have been looking for instruction to update the OpenOffice in Ubuntu to version 3. Finally, yesterday, I found this sit which with few easy steps will get OpenOffice updated to version 3 in no time.

http://www.rebelzero.com/ubuntu/ppa-for-openofficeorg-301-for-hardyintrepid/94

Modeline

If you like me who has problem to construct a xorg.conf, you may want to try this website

http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl

This website helps you to generate a modeline for you display.

Linux auto screen resize in VirtualBox

I have been using Virtualbox for a while now and I really like it. I always use the latest version if I can so I can get the latest fix and featuress. After I had just upgraded from 2.1.2 to 2.1.4, I noticed my auto resize in my Ubuntu Linux stopped working. I thought this might be caused by the incorrect driver module, hence I had recompiled the add-on again. It is only after the third time I noticed that there was an error message said that if my xorg.conf file contains modeline settings, the auto resize will stop working. Well, just in case you are like me who has not noticed that warning. To get the auto resize to work, simple remove any modeline from the xorg.conf and restart the window manager, everything should works again!.