Saturday, March 29, 2008
Youtube troubles in Linux
When I tried to watch a video in YouTube of an elephant painting itself, it didn't work. After downloading it with the great Firefox addon Download Helper and trying to listen to it, it still didn't work. Even worse, totem movie player advised me to buy some codecs for 16 euros. Realizing that once again Fedora wanted money for codecs that are supposed to be free, I googled for the codecs that playback required. Turns out that ffmpeg will easily change from an flv to an mpg. This page shows you how. It worked, but now there was no sound. Oh well. I'll keep trying.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Rockstar Programmer
Rockstar Programmer (Father)
Large Troll (Yosef)
Large Troll (yosef)Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Arthur C. Clarke dies at age 90
The world of science fiction lovers mourns today, remembering this great wise man who wrote so much and fired the imaginations of countless kids.
Partial bibliography (From Wikipedia)
[edit] Novels
* Prelude to Space (1951)
* The Sands of Mars (1951)
* Islands in the Sky (1952)
* Against the Fall of Night (1953)
* Childhood's End (1953)
* Earthlight (1955)
* The City and the Stars (1956)
* The Deep Range (1957)
* A Fall of Moondust (1961)
* Dolphin Island (1963)
* Glide Path (1963)
* 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
* Rendezvous with Rama (1972)
* Imperial Earth (1975)
* The Fountains of Paradise (1979)
* 2010: Odyssey Two (1982)
* The Songs of Distant Earth (1986)
* 2061: Odyssey Three (1988)
* A Meeting with Medusa (1988)
* Cradle (1988) (with Gentry Lee)
* Rama II (1989) (with Gentry Lee)
* Beyond the Fall of Night (1990) (with Gregory Benford)
* The Ghost from the Grand Banks (1990)
* The Garden of Rama (1991) (with Gentry Lee)
* Rama Revealed (1993) (with Gentry Lee)
* The Hammer of God (1993)
* Richter 10 (1996) (with Mike McQuay)
* 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997)
* The Trigger (1999) (with Michael P. Kube-McDowell)
* The Light of Other Days (2000) (with Stephen Baxter)
* Time's Eye (2003) (with Stephen Baxter)
* Sunstorm (2005) (with Stephen Baxter)
* Firstborn (2007) (with Stephen Baxter)
[edit] Omnibus editions
* Across the Sea of Stars (1959) (including Childhood's End, Earthlight and 18 short stories)
* From the Ocean, From the Stars (1962) (including The City and the Stars, The Deep Range and The Other Side of the Sky)
* An Arthur C. Clarke Omnibus (1965) (including Childhood's End, Prelude to Space and Expedition to Earth)
* Prelude to Mars (1965) (including Prelude to Space and The Sands of Mars)
* The Lion of Comarre & Against the Fall of Night (1968)
* An Arthur C. Clarke Second Omnibus (1968) (including A Fall of Moondust, Earthlight and The Sands of Mars)
* Four Great SF Novels (1978) (including The City and the Stars, The Deep Range, A Fall of Moondust, Rendezvous with Rama)
* The Space Trilogy (2001) (including Islands in the Sky, Earthlight and The Sands of Mars)
Against the Fall of Night in Startling Stories.
Against the Fall of Night in Startling Stories.
[edit] Short story collections
* Expedition to Earth (1953)
* Reach for Tomorrow (1956)
* Tales from the White Hart (1957)
* The Other Side of the Sky (1958)
* Tales of Ten Worlds (1962)
* The Nine Billion Names of God (1967)
* Of Time and Stars (1972)
* The Wind from the Sun (1972)
* The Best of Arthur C. Clarke (1973)
* The Sentinel (1983)
* Tales From Planet Earth (1990)
* More Than One Universe (1991)
* The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2000)
[edit] Non-fiction
* Interplanetary Flight; an introduction to astronautics. London: Temple Press, 1950
* The Exploration of Space. New York: Harper, 1951
* The Coast of Coral. New York: Harper, 1957 — Volume 1 of the Blue planet trilogy
* The Reefs of Taprobane; Underwater Adventures around Ceylon. New York: Harper, 1957 — Volume 2 of the Blue planet trilogy
* The Making of a Moon: the Story of the Earth Satellite Program. New York: Harper, 1957
* Boy beneath the sea, Photos by Mike Wilson. Text by Arthur C. Clarke. New York: Harper, 1958
* The Challenge of the Space Ship: Previews of Tomorrow’s World. New York: Harper, 1959
* The Challenge of the Sea. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960
* Profiles of the Future; an Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible. New York: Harper & Row, 1962
* The Treasure of the Great Reef. New York: Harper & Row, 1964 — Volume 3 of the Blue planet trilogy
* Voices from the Sky: Previews of the Coming Space Age. New York: Harper & Row, 1965
* The Promise of Space. New York: Harper, 1968
* Into Space: a Young Person’s Guide to Space, by Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Silverberg. New York: Harper & Row, 1971
* Report on Planet Three and Other Speculations. New York: Harper & Row, 1972
* The Lost Worlds of 2001. London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1972
* Voice Across the Sea. HarperCollins, 1975
* The View from Serendip. Random House, 1977
* The Odyssey File. Email correspondence with Peter Hyams. London: Panther Books, 1984
* 1984, Spring: a Choice of Futures. New York: Ballantine Books, 1984
* Ascent to Orbit, a Scientific Autobiography: The Technical Writings of Arthur C. Clarke. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1984
* Astounding Days: A Science Fictional Autobiography. London: Gollancz, 1989
* How the World Was One: Beyond the Global Village. New York : Bantam Books, 1992 — A history and survey of the communications revolution
* By Space Possessed. London: Gollancz, 1993
* The Snows of Olympus - A Garden on Mars (1994, picture album with comments)
* An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural, 1995, St. Martin's Press ISBN 0-312-15119-5 (Online Version)
* Fractals: The Colors of Infinity (1997, narrator)
* Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! : Collected Works 1934-1988. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999
* Profiles of the Future; an Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible (updated edition). New York: Harper & Row, 1999, ISBN 057506790X, ISBN 9780575067905
* From Narnia to a Space Odyssey: The War of Letters Between Arthur C. Clarke and C. S. Lewis (2003) with C. S. Lewis
* The Coming of the Space Age; famous accounts of man's probing of the universe, selected and edited by Arthur C. Clarke.
Partial bibliography (From Wikipedia)
[edit] Novels
* Prelude to Space (1951)
* The Sands of Mars (1951)
* Islands in the Sky (1952)
* Against the Fall of Night (1953)
* Childhood's End (1953)
* Earthlight (1955)
* The City and the Stars (1956)
* The Deep Range (1957)
* A Fall of Moondust (1961)
* Dolphin Island (1963)
* Glide Path (1963)
* 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
* Rendezvous with Rama (1972)
* Imperial Earth (1975)
* The Fountains of Paradise (1979)
* 2010: Odyssey Two (1982)
* The Songs of Distant Earth (1986)
* 2061: Odyssey Three (1988)
* A Meeting with Medusa (1988)
* Cradle (1988) (with Gentry Lee)
* Rama II (1989) (with Gentry Lee)
* Beyond the Fall of Night (1990) (with Gregory Benford)
* The Ghost from the Grand Banks (1990)
* The Garden of Rama (1991) (with Gentry Lee)
* Rama Revealed (1993) (with Gentry Lee)
* The Hammer of God (1993)
* Richter 10 (1996) (with Mike McQuay)
* 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997)
* The Trigger (1999) (with Michael P. Kube-McDowell)
* The Light of Other Days (2000) (with Stephen Baxter)
* Time's Eye (2003) (with Stephen Baxter)
* Sunstorm (2005) (with Stephen Baxter)
* Firstborn (2007) (with Stephen Baxter)
[edit] Omnibus editions
* Across the Sea of Stars (1959) (including Childhood's End, Earthlight and 18 short stories)
* From the Ocean, From the Stars (1962) (including The City and the Stars, The Deep Range and The Other Side of the Sky)
* An Arthur C. Clarke Omnibus (1965) (including Childhood's End, Prelude to Space and Expedition to Earth)
* Prelude to Mars (1965) (including Prelude to Space and The Sands of Mars)
* The Lion of Comarre & Against the Fall of Night (1968)
* An Arthur C. Clarke Second Omnibus (1968) (including A Fall of Moondust, Earthlight and The Sands of Mars)
* Four Great SF Novels (1978) (including The City and the Stars, The Deep Range, A Fall of Moondust, Rendezvous with Rama)
* The Space Trilogy (2001) (including Islands in the Sky, Earthlight and The Sands of Mars)
Against the Fall of Night in Startling Stories.
Against the Fall of Night in Startling Stories.
[edit] Short story collections
* Expedition to Earth (1953)
* Reach for Tomorrow (1956)
* Tales from the White Hart (1957)
* The Other Side of the Sky (1958)
* Tales of Ten Worlds (1962)
* The Nine Billion Names of God (1967)
* Of Time and Stars (1972)
* The Wind from the Sun (1972)
* The Best of Arthur C. Clarke (1973)
* The Sentinel (1983)
* Tales From Planet Earth (1990)
* More Than One Universe (1991)
* The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2000)
[edit] Non-fiction
* Interplanetary Flight; an introduction to astronautics. London: Temple Press, 1950
* The Exploration of Space. New York: Harper, 1951
* The Coast of Coral. New York: Harper, 1957 — Volume 1 of the Blue planet trilogy
* The Reefs of Taprobane; Underwater Adventures around Ceylon. New York: Harper, 1957 — Volume 2 of the Blue planet trilogy
* The Making of a Moon: the Story of the Earth Satellite Program. New York: Harper, 1957
* Boy beneath the sea, Photos by Mike Wilson. Text by Arthur C. Clarke. New York: Harper, 1958
* The Challenge of the Space Ship: Previews of Tomorrow’s World. New York: Harper, 1959
* The Challenge of the Sea. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960
* Profiles of the Future; an Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible. New York: Harper & Row, 1962
* The Treasure of the Great Reef. New York: Harper & Row, 1964 — Volume 3 of the Blue planet trilogy
* Voices from the Sky: Previews of the Coming Space Age. New York: Harper & Row, 1965
* The Promise of Space. New York: Harper, 1968
* Into Space: a Young Person’s Guide to Space, by Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Silverberg. New York: Harper & Row, 1971
* Report on Planet Three and Other Speculations. New York: Harper & Row, 1972
* The Lost Worlds of 2001. London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1972
* Voice Across the Sea. HarperCollins, 1975
* The View from Serendip. Random House, 1977
* The Odyssey File. Email correspondence with Peter Hyams. London: Panther Books, 1984
* 1984, Spring: a Choice of Futures. New York: Ballantine Books, 1984
* Ascent to Orbit, a Scientific Autobiography: The Technical Writings of Arthur C. Clarke. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1984
* Astounding Days: A Science Fictional Autobiography. London: Gollancz, 1989
* How the World Was One: Beyond the Global Village. New York : Bantam Books, 1992 — A history and survey of the communications revolution
* By Space Possessed. London: Gollancz, 1993
* The Snows of Olympus - A Garden on Mars (1994, picture album with comments)
* An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural, 1995, St. Martin's Press ISBN 0-312-15119-5 (Online Version)
* Fractals: The Colors of Infinity (1997, narrator)
* Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! : Collected Works 1934-1988. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999
* Profiles of the Future; an Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible (updated edition). New York: Harper & Row, 1999, ISBN 057506790X, ISBN 9780575067905
* From Narnia to a Space Odyssey: The War of Letters Between Arthur C. Clarke and C. S. Lewis (2003) with C. S. Lewis
* The Coming of the Space Age; famous accounts of man's probing of the universe, selected and edited by Arthur C. Clarke.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Music players for Linux
Music players in Linux are a varied lot. Some play only one format, some play all, and most can be configured to play everything. (Bad sentence, but I tried.) Getting Linux may be a giant step for man (you), or not. So if you've gone ahead with it, and gotten Fedora, Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Slackware, Mandriva, or any one of the hundreds of distributions on the the Wild Wild Web, get this: it's not Windows. For starters, you can really do anything you want without paying a cent, and with so much to choose from.
Now, about music (and video). There truly are no media players that can do everything you need, whether playing mp3 (a proprietary format, more about that later) or .AVI video files. Having four or more is the norm, with no real limit on how many you can have. I have 44, and I use 10 regularly. Many come if you add the KDE entertainment package from the add/remove applications menu. Their names are usually preceded by K-. Let's start with a basic list.
MPlayer plays video files when configured correctly. (For information on how to configure MPlayer, click here.)
VLC media player is much praised, but I don't use it.
Sound Juicer CD Extractor, while not strictly a media player, is really useful for CD burning.
Songbird is one of the best media players (though that's subjective). It is browser based, and sports nice skins and organizational abilities. It is a good replacement for Realplayer in that it effectively lists your music in the Library by album, artist, year, or what not. (Realplayer for Linux doesn't do much more than play music, and that's it.) Songbird is in its 0.4 release, still in development. As I have it configured, it sits in a folder on my desktop that I have to open to get at it, and click to run.
That should get you started. Ask around and Google for other media players.
P.S. Linux generally uses open-source formats, like OGG and FLAC. These are lossless music codecs, meaning that unlike low quality mp3 files, these can preserve the original bit rate of the music on CD (and is generally considered High Fidelity audio) and most CD burners will burn to them. mp3 is proprietary, and Linux, being free and not wanting to wrangle with lawyers about download and playback issues, uses free codecs. You can pretty easily get the requisite codecs for mp3 files though, and play them on Linux, so don't worry. Have fun!
Now, about music (and video). There truly are no media players that can do everything you need, whether playing mp3 (a proprietary format, more about that later) or .AVI video files. Having four or more is the norm, with no real limit on how many you can have. I have 44, and I use 10 regularly. Many come if you add the KDE entertainment package from the add/remove applications menu. Their names are usually preceded by K-. Let's start with a basic list.
MPlayer plays video files when configured correctly. (For information on how to configure MPlayer, click here.)
VLC media player is much praised, but I don't use it.
Sound Juicer CD Extractor, while not strictly a media player, is really useful for CD burning.
Songbird is one of the best media players (though that's subjective). It is browser based, and sports nice skins and organizational abilities. It is a good replacement for Realplayer in that it effectively lists your music in the Library by album, artist, year, or what not. (Realplayer for Linux doesn't do much more than play music, and that's it.) Songbird is in its 0.4 release, still in development. As I have it configured, it sits in a folder on my desktop that I have to open to get at it, and click to run.
That should get you started. Ask around and Google for other media players.
P.S. Linux generally uses open-source formats, like OGG and FLAC. These are lossless music codecs, meaning that unlike low quality mp3 files, these can preserve the original bit rate of the music on CD (and is generally considered High Fidelity audio) and most CD burners will burn to them. mp3 is proprietary, and Linux, being free and not wanting to wrangle with lawyers about download and playback issues, uses free codecs. You can pretty easily get the requisite codecs for mp3 files though, and play them on Linux, so don't worry. Have fun!
Ester
Mossy Tree Trunk
The clearing in the middle of the Arboretum
The pond in the Arboretum
Azaleas in the middle of winter
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