New Christmas Present: Google Phone

digitaleagle Andriod, Google Phone, Uncategorized Leave a comment

Well, my wife gave me a Google Phone for Christmas, and so, you will hopefully see some content about the phone and developing for it.  For now, let me just list some various tidbits about it for now.

First, I have noticed a definite difference in the Network.  We switched from Alltel to T-Mobile in order to get the phone.  I didn’t really have a signal problem in my normal stomping grounds.  Now, I get no signal in my parents house and have to walk outside if I want to place a call.  Coming out of church, I had to turn the phone off and back on again before it realized that I had a signal.

Another thing is that the phone doesn’t appear to use the hardware to the fullest extent.  For example, I haven’t found any applications that use the multitouch features, but Engadget reported that Ryan Gardner demonstrated that the phone does have the capability.  The other feature is the accelerometer.  It doesn’t seem to switch from landscape to portrait except when I open the keyboard.

The big feature that I need is a quick easy way to put the phone into etiquette mode.  If I walk into church, I would like to be able to turn the sound off so that it only vibrates.  Currently, the only way that I have found is to either turn off the sound in each individual application (like GMail, Calendar, Phone, etc.) or Silence the phone so that it doesn’t even vibrate.  Furthermore, I would love to have profiles.  When I am out and about, I would love to have it notify me if I get an email, but if I am in the office at my computer, I would rather my computer notify me rather than the phone.  I would like to configure profiles so that I can quickly switch between settings.

I hope to eventually develop some applications for the phone.  I am excited that this is very possible.  I have already installed the SDK.  Here are some links that are helpful:

Here are the applications that I use so far:

  • AcroBible Lite: A complete Bible on the phone
  • Bonsai Blast: An addictive little game
  • Browser
  • Calculator
  • Calendar: I use my Google Calendar much more
  • Camera: the camera works, but it is not the greatest camera
  • GMail
  • IM: I haven’t used it much, but I talked with my sister once
  • Maps: I used it to help with directions a couple of times.  I also used it to look up a phone number for ordering pizza.
  • Market: easy to install applications
  • PapiJump: a cool little game that demonstrates the accelerometer
  • Power Manager: easy to turn on/off things like the GPS
  • Tag ToDo: todo list application
  • The Weather Channel: nice application for looking up the weather
  • WeatherBug: Another interface for the weather
  • YouTube: only to watch Google Tech Talks

I installed the G1 Central application, but it didn’t really work.  I was hoping for a quick way to change the settings for where the phone rings, but it didn’t support those features.

Another thing I would love to have is a VPN to connect securely to resources at home while on the road.  I found an idea about using Juniper, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Using a Brother MFC 8840D with Ubuntu

digitaleagle sane/xsane, scanning, Uncategorized 2 Comments

Today, I tried to make our Brother MFC 8840D Fax/Scanner/Copier/Printer work with my Laptop that has Ubuntu on it.  I am currently running Hardy Heron 8.04 on it.  Here is what I did:

Downloaded the brscan driver as a .deb file.

I installed sane and xsane, but they were already installed:

sudo apt-get install sane xsane

Then, I installed the driver package:

 sudo dpkg -i brscan-0.2.4-0.i386.deb

Then, I configured it with:

 brsaneconfig -a name=BrotherScanner model="MFC-8840D" ip=192.168.168.168

I checked the configuration with:

brsaneconfig -q

These lines looked correct:

Devices on network
  0 BrotherScanner      "MFC-8840D"         I:192.168.168.168

I used xsane to scan, and everything worked fine — just like my printer/scanner at home.

Resources

Model Compatibility List and Download

Installation Instructions

Sound for Mythbuntu

digitaleagle Mythbuntu, Troubleshooting, Uncategorized Leave a comment

I couldn’t get my sound to work.  Here is what I went through.

This command will help you figure out what is installed:

skp@peanut:~$ lspci -v | grep -i audio
00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)

This command can also help identify what is installed:

skp@peanut:~$ asoundconf list
Names of available sound cards:
NVidia

This command will also give you some clues:

skp@peanut:~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC883 Analog [ALC883 Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: ALC883 Digital [ALC883 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

My problem was that this command said there were no sound devices.  I found I need to make the following changes.

I added these lines to the  /etc/modprobe.d/options file:

# from: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6313016
options snd-hda-intel model=3stack

I added these lines to the /etc/modules:

# from: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6313016
snd-hwdep
snd-hda-intel

Then, I rebooted, and the sound worked!

X Configuration for My ESA Plasma TV

digitaleagle NVidia, Troubleshooting, Ubuntu, Uncategorized Leave a comment

We bought a TV a while ago with the thought that one day we could hook the computer up to it.  Well, that day has come, but I had trouble getting it to display correctly.

I enabled the restricted drivers for the nvidia video card.  I could run nvidia-settings to configure the displays.

I had to add some options to me screen section in the xorg.conf to make it look like this:

Section “Screen”
Identifier     “Screen0”
Device         “Device0”
Monitor        “Monitor0”
DefaultDepth    24
Option         “TwinView”
Option         “NoTwinViewXineramInfo” “1”
Option         “metamodes” “1024x768_85,NULL”
Option         “TwinViewOrientation” “RightOf”
Option         “ModeValidation” “AllowNon60HzDFPModes,NoEdidModes,NoEdidDFPMaxSizeCheck,NoVertRefreshCheck,NoHorizSyncCheck,NoMaxSizeCheck,NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck”
Option         “UseEDID” “FALSE”
SubSection     “Display”
Depth       24
EndSubSection
EndSection
Then, I found a nice tool to generate mode lines.  I put the modeline in the monitor section:

Section “Monitor”

# HorizSync source: builtin, VertRefresh source: builtin
Identifier     “Monitor0”
VendorName     “Unknown”
ModelName      “CRT-0”
HorizSync       28.0 – 55.0
VertRefresh     43.0 – 72.0
Option         “DPMS”
ModeLine       “1024x768_85”     69.54   1024 1056 1320 1352    576  586  594  605
EndSection

Resources

Options for xorg.conf

Modeline Tools

PDFLatex

digitaleagle latex, Uncategorized Leave a comment

This post is just a fex explorations with latex. I had trouble with the images and PDFLatex.  One thing I noticed was the pdftex.def version:

  • installed: 0.04d
  • currently listed at project website: 0.04l

Updating the pdftex.def (assuming downloaded to the desktop):

cd /usr/share/texmf-texlive/tex/latex/pdftex-def
sudo mv pdftex.def pdftex.def.old
sudo cp /home/skp/Desktop/pdftex.def-0.04l/pdftex.def .

Now, this didn’t solve the problem.  I found that I had to convert the images to pdf. You need to install texlive-extra-utils: sudo apt-get install texlive-extra-utils
Then,
epstopdf imagename.eps

Here is a quick script that will convert all .eps images:

#!/bin/sh
cd images
for f in *.eps
do
epstopdf $f
done

Resources

LaTeX to OpenOffice

digitaleagle latex, Uncategorized 2 Comments

I thought I read that converting Latex documents into Open Office documents was possible, but I had trouble figuring it out today.  The bottom line was that I was using the wrong program to do so, and I didn’t have dvipng installed.

Where is oolatex?

When I typed oolatex on the command-line, the system couldn’t find the program.  It turns out that oolatex just isn’t on the path.  It is installed with the tex4ht system.  When installed, it is located at:

/usr/share/tex4ht/oolatex

You can install it with:

apt-get install tex4ht

To compile a document you could use:

/usr/share/tex4ht/oolatex MyDoc.tex

Using htlatex

The command-line for htlatex is a little more complex, but it works.  You can use htlatex to convert a document like this:

htlatex MyDoc.tex 'xhtml,ooffice' 'ooffice/! -cmozhtf' '-coo' '-cvalidate'

Using mk4ht

Mk4ht is  much simpler.  You can use mk4ht like this:

mk4ht oolatex MyDoc.tex

Images

I noticed this in the output:

sh: dvipng: not found

To fix it, I installed dvipng with:

sudo apt-get install dvipng

Then, the images worked fine.

Resources

Java + Compiz

digitaleagle Compiz/Fusion/Beryl, Eclipse, Java, Troubleshooting, Ubuntu, Uncategorized Leave a comment

I have been having trouble with getting blank Windows with my Java programs.  The problem first appeared in programs I was working on in Eclipse, but then I found other programs I had downloaded from SourceForge also had the same problem.  Apparently, the problem comes from a conflict with Compiz-Fusion and Java.

Here is the solution:

Add the following line to /etc/environment —

AWT_TOOLKIT="MToolkit"

You possibly need to reboot for this change to take effect.

When I did this I got this error:

java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Can't load library: /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/i386

The problem appears to be caused by using OpenJDK.  The solution was to use Sun’s JDK.  This post will not go into detail about how to switch, but here are some things to consider:

  • Install Sun’s JDK with Add/Remove Programs, apt-get, etc.
  • Use update-alternatives to point the OS to the correct Java Home
  • Run java -version to check that the correct version is in use
  • Update the installed JVMs in the Eclipse preferences to make sure that Eclipse is lauching programs with the correct JVM

Resources

winmail.dat

digitaleagle Email, Thunderbird, Troubleshooting, Uncategorized Leave a comment

I received an email today from a user with Outlook.  The email contained an attachment called winmail.dat.  I tried to figure out how to view it in Thunderbird, and I couldn’t figure it out.  I finally was able to view it online in GMail.

First, I tried to install the LookOut extension, but it didn’t work.  I am guessing it doesn’t support new versions of Outlook.  I don’t know.

Then, I tried TNEF.  You can install it with “sudo apt-get install tnef”.  I downloaded the winmail.dat file and ran “tnef winmail.dat”.  The response was “Seems not to be a TNEF file”.

In synaptic, I noticed another program called ytnef.  I tried that: “sudo apt-get install ytnef”.  Again, “ytnef winmail.dat”.  Reponse was “ERROR: Signature does not match. Not TNEF.”.

Finally, I checked my mail online with Gmail, and it displayed the embedded image without even complaining about a winmail.dat file!

Sorry that is not much help, but it solved the problem for now.  Please comment if you know another solution.

Resources