Planet MHVLUG

Sean Dague: Links for 2008-07-22

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:00:08 +0000

YouTube - Newtonian N Body OpenSim Demo
Really cool thing you can do with OpenSim by replacing the physics engine.

Sean Dague: Liferea slowing down? here is the fix

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:26:08 +0000

I found that Liferea (my rss reader) was starting to get really slow. Hitting space bar to go to the next article was getting somewhat painful levels of delay.

The Fix

Liferea uses sqlite to store it’s information. Over time, when you delete from sqlite, the db gets pretty unoptimized (lots of tombstones). This can be fixed with the following command (make sure Liferea is NOT running before doing this):

sqlite3 ~/.liferea_1.4/liferea.db vacuum

(adjust the directory if running a different version of liferea.) It both made my liferea.db 1/2 as big, and now everything is snappy again.

Mike Muller: SpugAudio and Spug++

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I've just released SpugAudio and Spug++ - SpugAudio is a wrapper library that presents a common interface for ALSA and ESD based audio that I wrote when I discovered that the newer versions of ESD appear to have broken audio recording (at least on my hardware) which in turn breaks my audio recording toolchain.

spug++ is my common C++ library which SpugAudio depends on. Wurld also uses it, but with wurld I can bundle it. With SpugAudio bundling is more difficult, so spug++ is now an independent entity.

On a somewhat related note, I've just discovered that audacity works pretty well on my laptop (for situations where I can put up with the noisy, monophonic input that I get from my laptop) so I'll probably be using audacity a lot more for composition in favor of my own tools - I can bring the laptop down to the basement where the rest of my equipment normally lives. And as for the "noisy" part, audacity includes a noise-remover...

Sean Dague: Links for 2008-07-18

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:00:08 +0000

5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G - Free Software Foundation
Good things to highlight. I’ve never been an apple fan because of their really strong DRM push.

An introduction to git-svn for Subversion/SVK users and deserters
Really extensive write up on git-svn usage patterns

Git - SVN Crash Course
git for svn users

David Silverman - About Typo
Sent to me by a friend of a friend. I need to check out some of the excerpts this weekend.

Scramblings
doing C# bindings on Linux

KODAK Theatre HD Player Features and Benefits
This could be cool, except if they fully did away with an IR remote. I don’t care out innovative your remote is, if I can’t use my logitech harmony your device is useless to me.

BBC hires IBM guru for its foray into virtual worlds | Technology | guardian.co.uk
Roo has been a great pleasure to work with, the BBC is very luck to have snagged him from us.

Slashdot | RHN Bind Update Brings Down RHEL Named
Ah, it’s going to be a funny day on the internet

Sean Dague: Links for 2008-07-17

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:00:06 +0000

Schneier on Security: Homeland Security Cost-Benefit Analysis
queued for weekend reading

Opensim Users
OpenSim Users social network started on Ning. Very cool.

Sean Dague: Links for 2008-07-16

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:00:07 +0000

New Furniture With Echoes Of Past — Courant.com
Great article on my friend Mike Fogg who does custom furniture work in Connecticut

Sean Dague: Links for 2008-07-15

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:00:10 +0000

IBM Moves Into the Virtual World
OpenSim gets a mention in a Motley Fool article. Nice.

‘At home Manekshaw was far away from an Army chief’ - ExpressIndia.Com
My friend Jehan features promiently in this article about the passing of his grandfather, India’s first 5 star general.

Uncertain Principles: Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy, by Randy Olson
Going to need to check this out

Larry Lessig says the law is strangling creativity | Video on TED.com
Really great talk

Slashdot | Second Life Faces Open Source Challenges
Nifty, OpenSim made slashdot

Sean Dague: Links for 2008-07-14

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:00:06 +0000

Mesostructures GSoC 2008 - Second Life Wiki
Nifty approach to doing more with textures

Sean Dague: Links for 2008-07-11

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:00:06 +0000

Improbable Research » Blog Archive » Ig winner announces discovery
Worlds new hottest pepper.