www.shermania.net

I've searched the web for this more than a lot of times. I should just write it down here so I don't forget it again.

To cue a youtube video to send to someone, just add #t=1m25s to the end of the URL, where the numbers represent the time you want the video to start playing at, in minutes and seconds.

Take a normal youtube URL, and in the browser bar, IM window, email, or whatever, just type it in.

Here's an example URL, a video my sister sent me on my birthday that has a lead-in. With the cue tag at the end of the URL I can have it jump straight to the good part:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGyFG4QFWOs#t=0m31s

See? Wasn't that cool?

The setup:
We have Ubuntu linux running with accelerated desktop effects (compiz fusion, I believe).
We have Eagle circuit layout editor: http://www.cadsoft.de/ Version 4.16r2
This program is cross-platform and plays great with linux.

The Problem:
When Eagle launches, everything that should be painted black (like, gee, I don't know, TEXT) is transparent. This makes the menus completely unreadable. If you want to read the text or see the lines on the page, you need to place the window over a dark background. This isn't a workable setup.

This is what I did with a fresh install of full Ubuntu 8.04 on an eeePC 701. To make the full Ubuntu fit I installed the /usr directory to an SD card that is now a permanent part of the setup.

Turned off bookmarks bar in Firefox

array.org/ubuntu hack#13 to unconstrain windows from going past to top of the screen:
- gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/compiz/plugins/move/allscreens/options/constrain_y 0

Added 3rd Party repository
- deb http://www.array.org/ubuntu hardy eeepc
Added key to repository
- wget http://www.array.org/ubuntu/array-apt-key.asc

This isn't a very complicated or hard to remember trick, but it's a useful one, and I feel like writing about it. The general principle is simple. I have a package available through apt and synaptic, but it isn't a new enough version. I checked on http://packages.ubuntu.com and the version I want is available in the next upcoming OS release. The plan is to add that new release as an extra package source, grab the new package, then turn it off when we're done.

So you've read my blog entry on Why Enter Passwords? and it changed your life. In linux. So like 95% of your life is now covered. But you have that windows machine you need to do some work on for whatever reason, and you don't want to enter your password a bazillion times to do ssh+svn on that, either. Let me break down the specific scenario, and be careful to define the scope of my solution.

* I have a Windows XP client on which I do work.
* I have a Linux server running SVN that I connect to over SSH (known, tested working)

So you have Ubuntu running on your Asus eeePC. Good for you! But, there are some out-of-the-box issues. The most noticeable thing is the lack of your wifi working. Your sound is acting funny, the hotkeys don't work, and it takes a long time to start up. There is hope for you! We have the solution to all these probems and more with the customized, optimized kernel by array.org.

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, the official Mark Sherman howto on preparing a USB thumb drive to be a bootable install media.

I'm gonna keep it short and to the point. You will need an Ubuntu 8.04 Alternative Install disk image and to download a few files from the web. I use the alternative install because it uses the text-based installer which is better for very small platform devices. You will need a computer already running linux. My instructions are for Ubuntu, but it uses pretty standard tools that should be available on your platform.

Today's lesson is about public key authentication with SSH. I use SSH to connect remotely to all sorts of systems, but beyond the simple terminal I use it to encapsulate file transfers, and newly, subversion requests. Entering a password every time I make a connection doesn't seem like such a big deal, but once you start using svn+ssh, it keeps prompting you on every single operation.

svn list ..... enter password
No, that wasn't the right directory
svn list other directory ... enter password
Ah, there it is

This is true of any linux machine: you probably want to run compiz. Compiz is the desktop compositing software of choice for Ubuntu. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can get a feel for the features in this video I made a while back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBhGt4kEiP8

Anyway, when you install Ubuntu it automatically tries to get that fun and fast desktop acceleration going. By going through the System > Preferences > Appearance menu and selecting the Visual Effects tab, you'll see a whopping three choices.

* None
* Normal
* Extra

So I'm at Pi-Con gaming/lifestyle/nerdstuff/etc convention in West Springfield. Stacy and I taught a little ballroom for their Masquerade Ball event.

Before I continue, one of the Olympics correspondents just said this:
"The Olympic Games, besides being the greatest accomplishments in sports, is possibly our world's best excuse for throwing stuff."
A man on NBC with the fancy suit on television just said that. On television. Nationally. Not a young, hip guy, either. An old dyed-in-the-wool kinda guy. Said that. On television.