Amarok 2 unable to play audio files on Ubuntu 9.04-Solved

Soon after upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04(Review coming soon!) I found that Amarok 2 was unable to play any kind of audio files.

When I opened amarok from a terminal I was getting this error

[snip]
link XMLID_7_ hasn't been detected!
Couldn't resolve property: radialGradient3986
[/snip]

Some threads suggest to install phonon-xine-backend, but Kubuntu is already shipped with phonon backend.

After posting my problem in launchpad I found this solution
just type this in a command line

[code]
sudo apt-get install libxine1-ffmpeg
[/code]

then Amarok will be back in full swing!

However I'm not all that satisfied with Amarok 2 as I was with earlier versions.
Any way I hope this helps somebody.

How to download .ram files(online streamed files)

Here is a video which helps you to download .ram files from websites which stream files online like kannadaaudio.com
You will need RealPlayer on Windows and some codecs for GNU/Linux box.

the steps are:
1>click on the song/media file you need to download
2>open it with a text editor
3>copy the link that appears
4>paste the link in your favorite browser
5>save the file
6>after download is over open it with Real player(Totem/Kaffiene)
7>Voila! the file is in your HDD!



I learned this trick from Suhas, thank u mate!

ತೇಜನೊಬ್ಬ ನಾಮ ಹಲವು!

ನನ್ನ ಹೆಸರು "ಪೂರ್ಣತೇಜ ಘಟ್" , ನನ್ನ ತಂದೆ ತಾಯಿ ಇಟ್ಟಿರುವ ಹೆಸರು. ಆದ್ರೆ ಇದೇನು "ತೇಜನೊಬ್ಬ ನಾಮ ಹಲವು!" ಅಂತ ಯೋಚನೆಯೆ?
ಇಲ್ಲಿದೆ ನೊಡೀ ನನ್ನ ವ್ಯತೆಯ ಕಥೆ...

ನನ್ನ ಹೆಸರನ್ನು ಇದುವರೆಗು ಕೇವಲ ಕೆಲವೇ ಜನರು ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ತಿಳಿದಿದ್ದರೆ/ಉಚ್ಚರಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ.
ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಕಾರಣ ನನಗೆ ತಿಳಿಯದು.
ನಾನು ಹುಟ್ಟಿದಾಗಲಿಂದ ನನ್ನ ಹೆಸರಿನ ವಿಧಾವಿಚಿತ್ರ Version ಗಳನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ಅವು:

ಪೂರ್ಣ ನೋ---ಹೂರ್ಣ ನೋ?
ಪುರ್ನಾ ತೇಜ
ಪೂನಾ ತೇಜ
ಪೂರ್ಣ ತೇಜ್
ಪೂರ್ಣ ಜೀತಾ
ಪರ್ನಿತರಾಜ್
ಪೂರನ್ ತೇಜ್
ಪುರಾ ತೇಹಾ
ತೇಜ್

ಇದೆಲ್ಲವನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿ ನನ್ನ ಕರ್ಣಾನಂದವಾಗಿ ನನ್ನ ಗುರುಗಳು ಹೇಳುತಿದ್ದ "ದೇವನೊಬ್ಬ ನಾಮ ಹಲವು"ಅಂದರೇನು ಎಂದು ಅರ್ಥವಾಯಿತು.

ನನಗೆ ನಾಮಕರಣ ಮಾಡಲು ನನ್ನ ತಂದೆ ತಾಯಿ ಕಷ್ಟ ಪಟ್ಟಿರುವ ಕಾರಣದಿಂದಾಗಲು ದಯವಿಟ್ಟು ನನ್ನನು "ಪೂರ್ಣತೇಜ" ಎಂದು ಕರೆಯಿರಿ ಎಂದು ನಾನು ನಿಮ್ಮನೆಲ್ಲಾ ಪ್ರಾರ್ತಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ.

PS: This is my first post in kannada using SCIM. SCIM ROCKS! \m/

EW-FSUG's successfull BOOT!

Reception of Guest

Introduction by HOD


Keen audience(in full hall)

Some command line demonstrations

Today we successfully inaugurated the EWIT-Free Software Users Group in our campus. The efforts behind it span from as long as 2 years as I know.Long back our seniors did have an un-official LUG, which never met even once!But we some how managed to BOOT the FSUG after 4 semesters of repeated attempts. The weired part about this group is that it was initiated by a set of Electronics students like me.

Our group was inaugurated by Dr.Renuka Prasad and addressed us about the Free Software philosophy and showed us some interesting alternatives to proprietary software.Later Madhusudhan and Santosh(from BMSCE) inspired and motivated us by sharing their experience they had in GSoc and FOSS with us. But the time crunch made the talk shallow.

Totally it turned out to be a good start for our group.In the near future our group plans to promote Free Software in our campus including our hostel.

USB Ubuntu 8.10 install:tutorial

Every time Canonical Inc comes up with a new release candidate of Ubuntu, it keeps getting better. Even with Interpid Ibex 8.10 its no different. This tutorial shows 'How to' install Ubuntu 8.10 on to a flash media and carry it in your pocket. Earlier I had done a 'How to' install Ubuntu 7.10 on a USB which was completely through command line . Now that Ubuntu 8.10 has new feature of doing it through the GUI, I thought it was worth doing a post. The best part about making USB boot disk is that you dont really need to install it to do all this. A simple Live Cd will do the trick. So here it is:

Step1:System->Administration->Create a USB boot disk




Step2:Insert Ubuntu X.XX CD(haven't checked for other distros)





Step3:Insert Flash drive and set space required for persistent feature




Step4:Watch it happening

Step5: After completed reboot from USB or insert USB elsewhere and boot from USB.

I wish you Happy Hacking!

Aero India 2009

Aero India, Asia's premier air show and very much awaited event in Bengaluru concluded on 15th February 2009. I've been going to this event since 2001 and this was my fifth time.
Though the spirit levels and enthusiasm in me was a bit debilitated,this time I did manage to go there , that too on time!
Now that the new airport is ready, the road to the IAF station in Yelahanka (where the event takes place) is excellent.

Aero India 2005
(the Surya Kiran team doing the Heart maneuver)

After seeing the show I noticed that this time the Air show did lack some caliber. Unlike earlier versions the number of Jets flying were less and the sorties they did were also less.
The reasons , I inferred was that mainly the interest of Indian Government towards Defense purchases. In 2007 the Govt expressed their desire to purchase few crafts so almost every Aerospace giant thronged to cash in the situation. But when nothing really happened every body seem to have lost interest. This reflected on the Airshow this year. This time the only majors luring the IAF were the Lockheed Martin with their F-16 and F-18 and the Euro fighter Typhoon. These three Jets were the only interested people in selling the crafts, so were very invigorated with their flights.

Aero India 2007(MiG 35)

The rest like Mikoyan-Gurevich(MiG) and Sukhoi weren't all that impressive unlike the earlier versions.
The absence of SAAB's Gripen, BAE's Hawk/Sea harrier made the show a lacsture performance.
The Surya Kiran team- the show stealers every time didn't manage to do it this time because of the ailing team who were mourning the loss of one of the team member who died in an accident while training in Bidar,Karnataka.

Aero India 2009(Su-30 MKI)

But the trade exhibition didn't let my hopes down as it was very good, with the German airforce-Luftwaffe participating in huge number for the very first time in Aero India impressed me.

Although all these factors did hinder the show's attraction it did impress freaks like me.
I have put up some photos here and some videos here. Please have a look and put in some comments.
Hope to you again in 2011,
Bye bye Aero India!

Audio Switch- A Failure story

Ver 0.1

Ver 0.1.1

As I'm a music freak, I have different music on different machines of mine(a desktop and a laptop), but I have only one 2.1 channel sound system which has to be shared by both machines, for which I need to switch between both by plugging and unplugging to a machine each time. This turned out be a huge problem as I have to reach out to the wires plug in/out. So I thought of making a manual Audio switch which would help me with this problem.
First I came up with the Version 0.1 of the switch.
Its summarized below:

Advantages:

1. Easy to handle.

Disadvantages:

1. It was very unstable because it wasn't mounted on a PCB.
2. The sound output was not stereo mixed because of a design error.
3. Was very noisy.

Then I came up with the second version named 0.1.1(since no change in design), which is summarized below:


Advantages:

1. Was easier to handle than the old one.
2. Noise was reduced to a great extent.
3. Was stable as it was mounted on a PCB.
4. Stereo quality sound output.

Disadvantages:

1. Was prone to loose contacts and internal resistances of the extension chords.
2. Instead of providing two separate channels, the switch was multiplexing both inputs, which turned out to be a Disaster!

In the end both versions didn't satisfy my needs and the Audio switch turned to be a big FAILURE!

If if you have any suggestions to improve this please do leave a comment.

Solar Eclipse 2009

This year's very first eclipse, the solar eclipse was visible in Bengaluru. This time the eclipse wasn't as intense as last time(check this out) which happened in 2007 but it was fun watching the celestial event from my home. I wish I could see a total lunar eclipse from my home at least once in my life time.

Interfaced LCD on an ATMega8!

After slogging out for more than three years I finally managed to boot the LCD panel on an ATMega8!

This winter I was determined to boot the LCD somehow. When I was crawling on the WWW I found this guy's code/tutorial from
extereme electronics which turned out to be very useful. He has explained each step in the interfacing process.
Now since that I haven't done anything great I wont give much details on the interfacing, rather I would like to give the link to the tutorial. The tutorial is here.


In the end I would like to tell that seeing the LCD boot was a big boost to my morale.

Happy New year 2009!

I wish you all a very Happy New year 2009!(I know its late, but my apologies for that)Like last year even this year I have designed a Calendar themed on 'Panoramic view'.Please download it and have a look at it and send in feedback.
The link to the calendar in a PDF Full resolution pics
Here's a sample to the WORK I've done