that’s whacked

rebuilding mplayer on nexenta to play wmv9dmo

Saturday, Sep 9. 2006  –  Category: OpenSolaris, OpenSource

i had some .wmv files that wouldn’t play under the default Nexent mplayer package. mplayer just complained that it didn’t recognise the wmv9dmo codec. bummer.

i went to the mplayer website and downloaded the latest source and the essential-codecs package for x86. here’s what i had to do to get mplayer building so i could play my wmv9dmo files:

• apt-get install xlibs-dev sunwaudh gcc make
• ./configure –prefix=~ –enable-xv –enable-x11 –enable-sunaudio
• gmake all
• gmake install

the xlibs-dev and sunwaudh packages threw me off for a while.

sometimes i hate oakland

Saturday, Sep 9. 2006  –  Category: Pets

someone tried to break into our house yesterday. our alarm company very promptly called me on my cell phone to notify me that they had dispatched a police officer to our house.

i gave wendy a call and she went home to check up on the house with a neighbour. it looks like some of the stuff on our back patio has been moved (presumably so whoever was trying to get in could get to the back kitchen door since the garbage can i put to block it was moved).

fortunately, some combination of our ferocious beagles and our loud-honkin’-alarm scared the person off.

either way. sometimes i just f-ing hate oakland.

a cross-disciplinary productive day

Saturday, Sep 9. 2006  –  Category: Code, Music, OpenSolaris, OpenSource, Pets

i’ve had a fun day catching up on all sorts of little odds and ends i’d had on my to do list.

• finished the final step in my migration of all my users’ home directories and web-space to ZFS.
• setup drupal and started building the portal for my neighbourhood. our neighbourhood improvement association was blowing away $45/month on crappy webhosting for a phpBB installation that kept getting hacked, and a mailman list. it’d frustrated me long enough that i finally volunteered to be the webmaster. i’m in the process of building a new website from scratch that will be a full portal to our neighbourhood and provide blogs, message boards, mailing lists, and web space to any resident, organisation/club, or store in our neighbourhood
• did lots of research on various brake pads for my A4. i’m planning on replacing my front brake pads tomorrow. it’s been tough finding a good recommended brake pad that has a firm bite, not-as-much brake dust, and a proper connection for a wear sensor. i’m finding that it’s hard to find a good firm sport brake that will endure my, shall we say, vigorous, driving that also has a wear sensor.
• installed bugzilla on grommit. i finally got tired of hearing about our bug database sucking, and the points about project bug-tracking for externally driven projects (like ksh93) are perfectly valid. yes i realise there is much to be done on b.o.o., but due to the process, policy, and implementation of Sun’s bug tracking system, there are lot more constraints of b.o.o. i do intend to help internally anyway i can to make it better; but in the meantime, hopefully the bugzilla install will let external projects start tracking bugs and just make progress

my random thoughts for the day:

• the new vienna teng cd is incredible. her voice has definitely matured since her first two CDs. the music is less raw now, a little more polished/produced. this is neither good, nor bad… just different. the CD is brilliant. highly recommended.
• there’s nothing quite like a freshly bathed beagle as your soft/plush pillow when you’re taking a nap. lovely.
• it’s getting colder and gloomier out now. i took the dogs to Pt. Isabel, and actually had to wear a beanie. this was also my first official soft-shell-jacket wear of the season. it’s definitely fall.
• i’d always known Pt. Isabel was big… i didn’t realise it was the largest off-leash dog park in the nation. wow. go east bay parks
• the chili/sourdough baguette at the cafe at Pt. Isabel rocks. highly recommended.

whacked (literally) by juggy

Thursday, Sep 7. 2006  –  Category: OpenSolaris

i feel like this happened ages ago…. i’d actually forgotten about it. anyway, bruno finally got around to editing and posting the Juggy Kicks video they put together at JavaOne 2006.

/me wonders if Juggy just doesn’t like Nexenta. i have a feeling i would have gotten the kick regardless of what i said. anyway, it was a fun evening. got dinner, 3 beers, and kicked by Juggy. how much better can it get?

lazing around and catching up

Thursday, Sep 7. 2006  –  Category: Musings

had a great weekend – got to watch Josh kick some serious ass in his new race car up at Sears Point where he set a new track record for his class…. followed up by some great Italian food in downtown Sonoma.

sunday was spent having brunch with tammy, angela, and jesse followed up by some “very civilised” drinking of wine at the Stanford Oval. the cheese, prosciutto, chocolate, and wine was amazing. it would have actually been classy too if we hadn’t of just been passing the bottle around.

monday was spent plugging in a new drive for grommit, and having a doggy day filled with baths, walks, and playtime at the park for the beagles

convergance vs. modularity

Sunday, Sep 3. 2006  –  Category: Musings

Geoff’s post getting a blackberry prompted a great follow-up comment by Alec.

I’ve often thought about convergance vs. modularity. The geek in me agrees with most of Alec’s comments… I’ve yet to find a cell phone that plays games as good as a PSP, or a PDA that is as small and easy to dial with as a cell phone, or a cell phone that can play 20 hours of mp3s with a great interface and USB connectivity, etc. etc. so, yes… I do carry individual devices that I think are the way to go (for now), and as Alec put it: “modularity and incremental upgrading wins”. That’s very Unix-y isn’t it? Independent devices built for one purpose and one purpose only…

But on the other hand, the sane person in me who likes to wear shorts with two pockets and doesn’t want to carry 8 things in them says that’s bull. I don’t think digital convergance is rubbish – I would love to have a single uber-device that did everything. I see the cell phone getting there…. its PDA functions are almost there, and I don’t doubt that in a year or two it’ll be ready to replace my mp3 player as well. I don’t foresee it taking over the digital camera market (at least not the mega-zoom, semi-prosumer market that I would buy my next camera in)- but yes… I do think that in a short amount of time – I would love to have a digitally-converged device.