PulseAudio : Hate and Hate (pathetic audio)

Why the fuck does ubuntu need pulseaudio, everything seemed to work so well "WITHOUT" it!!! After removing the damn thing it seems xbmc worked much better on my system, before I had to kill it before launching xbmc. Had some troubles with boxee too, but after removing PA it works much better now.

All I can say is PulseAudio = Pathetic Audio

No one wants you PulseAudio so scram!!!

killall pulseaudio
sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio

IE 8 beta FAIL!

Firefox 3.2 Alpha now out!

Firefox 3.2 Alpha release is now available! Not sure yet what is new with this release but I'm sure to give it a try, might break a lot of extensions though.

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/

Dyndns not forwarding

This is odd is seems dyndns has stopped forwarding sitegeisha.dyndns.dk to my server, however I tried using SSH using sitegeisha.dyndns.dk and it work, also tried ftp and it worked, tried accessing using other ports and it also worked.

I also checked to see if port 80 was accessible from the outside and it was okay. http://www.canyouseeme.org/

WTF is going on???!!!

Youtube Cache with Squid + Lighttpd on Ubuntu

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Fastest browser on earth!

I do hope you've already switched to Firefox or something a lot better than IE. However there is something else faster than Firefox at the moment and I JUST can't wait for it to get out of alpha/beta!!! It's Firefox Minefield

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/

They got the fastest javascript engine in the planet at the moment, if you go give it a try enable JIT by typing about:config in the url bar and then search for jit. Then set:

javascript.options.jit.chrome;true
javascript.options.jit.content;true

And there you have it, you'll be surfing faster than Google Chrome, but if you want to test your extensions make sure you try and install the nightly addon to override the compatibility settings.


Sunspider Javascript benchmark result

FF3.1b2
Total: 1270.6ms +/- 2.0%

Google Chrome
Total: 1970.0ms +/- 0.6%

FF3.0.3
Total: 2710.0ms +/- 1.1%

IE8 B2
Total: 7600.6ms +/- 0.3%

Lighttpd - light and fast web server

I've used IIS, then Apache on windows, then switched to LAMP and now I'm on LLMP and couldn't be much happier! Lighttpd lives up to its name, it is fast and easy on server resources. Learning it wasn't so bad, I actually found plenty of resources on the web and the configuration is actually much simpler than apache, also I didn't have to rely on webmin to configure it now.

Here's how I configured Lighttpd to run on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex with xcache, memcache and mysql.

To be continued...

sitegeisha.servebbs.org BLOCKED again!!!

:( as of 6:00 am this morning Site Geisha was blocked from dyndns.org, this really makes me furious!!!! Does anyone here know of a DNS registration service that does not block adult forums? Please email at sitegeisha at gmail dat com.

I do apologize for this inconvenience I hope to get SG back up and running soon. Just remembered the original url got blocked when I started using OpenDNS service and now the new one is blocked again.



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Best recovery tool for Linux is on Windows

hamasaki@Ayumi:~$ sudo reiserfsck --check /dev/sdd
reiserfsck 3.6.19 (2003 www.namesys.com)

************************************************** ***********
** If you are using the latest reiserfsprogs and it fails **
** please email bug reports to reiserfs-list@namesys.com, **
** providing as much information as possible -- your **
** hardware, kernel, patches, settings, all reiserfsck **
** messages (including version), the reiserfsck logfile, **
** check the syslog file for any related information. **
** If you would like advice on using this program, support **
** is available for $25 at www.namesys.com/support.html. **
************************************************** ***********

Will read-only check consistency of the filesystem on /dev/sdd
Will put log info to 'stdout'

Do you want to run this program?[N/Yes] (note need to type Yes if you do):Yes
###########
reiserfsck --check started at Sun Sep 28 22:12:00 2008
###########
Replaying journal..
No transactions found
Checking internal tree..

Bad root block 0. (--rebuild-tree did not complete)

Aborted (core dumped)

WTF does that mean? Well for one it means I can no longer access about 80 gb of data, HANS REISER just murdered my data!!! LOL.... hmmm well back to my data, is it gone now?

Tried to mount the drive... dmesg output when I tried to mount the drive

[12159.408846] ReiserFS: sdd: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
[12159.408901] ReiserFS: sdd: using ordered data mode
[12159.414282] ReiserFS: sdd: journal params: device sdd, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30
[12159.415307] ReiserFS: sdd: checking transaction log (sdd)
[12159.998070] ReiserFS: warning: is_tree_node: node level 47354 does not match to the expected one -1
[12159.998089] ReiserFS: sdd: warning: vs-5150: search_by_key: invalid format found in block 0. Fsck?
[12159.998100] ReiserFS: sdd: warning: vs-13070: reiserfs_read_locked_inode: i/o failure occurred trying to find stat data of [1 2 0x0 SD]
[12159.998117] ReiserFS: sdd: Using r5 hash to sort names
[12159.998136] ReiserFS: sdd: warning: xattrs/ACLs enabled and couldn't find/create .reiserfs_priv. Failing mount.
[12202.777292] ReiserFS: sdd: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
[12202.779625] ReiserFS: sdd: using ordered data mode
[12202.785827] ReiserFS: sdd: journal params: device sdd, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30
[12202.791682] ReiserFS: sdd: checking transaction log (sdd)
[12203.382859] ReiserFS: warning: is_tree_node: node level 47354 does not match to the expected one -1
[12203.382883] ReiserFS: sdd: warning: vs-5150: search_by_key: invalid format found in block 0. Fsck?
[12203.382895] ReiserFS: sdd: warning: vs-13070: reiserfs_read_locked_inode: i/o failure occurred trying to find stat data of [1 2 0x0 SD]
[12203.382919] ReiserFS: sdd: Using r5 hash to sort names
[12203.392484] ReiserFS: sdd: warning: xattrs/ACLs enabled and couldn't find/create .reiserfs_priv. Failing mount.

It's amazing, the best tool for recovering reiserfs is made for windows!

http://www.ufsexplorer.com/

UFS Explorer just saved me, I was able to make an image of the failed drive, on my other pc with windows xp, I installed UFS Explorer. Then opened the image file that was shared on ubuntu over the network.

UFS Explorer scanned for the superblock and displayed all the folders I needed with the filenames intact and everything on that drive.I was then able to right click on each of them and copy it to a spare drive on the windows pc. It was so easy I now regret wasting so much time on those command line tools where you have to read several man pages just to get started.

I even asked for help on ubuntuforums, no luck. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=932922



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Arrghhhh no power again!!!

Went home for lunch and just as I was about to microwave my MRE the power went kapootz :(

Site is down until power is restored, sorry guys, its back to my grill for me.

EDIT: Comcast just finished repairing cable connections in our area, but without power what am I supposed to do?!

After Ike...

Well I'm back home, the servers are okay, me and my family made it through just fine. No damage to our place whatsoever. It took about a week for power to get back, we had running water which was good, but the heat made it almost impossible for people to sleep.

Electricity came back last night, we were all jumping for joy, finally I can get a hot shower! After that I began setting up the servers again, unluckily I guess our cable got knocked off or something, we got no TV and no Internet.

Already called Comcast, I don't know how long it will take for them to get our services back up and running again.

Some damage we saw coming back home...


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We got some MRE's from FEMA pods, they were okay but taste bland or too salty sometimes, the first one we tried was mexican corns and beans!


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Leaving Houston now...

Server will be offline until this bad weather has passed... please stand by!!! And hope that the server stays dry!

I made backups of the database and all server files, saved them on my dropbox and I'm hoping nothing gets damage at home.

Hurricane Ike

http://www.click2houston.com/hurricanetracker/index.html

SG will most likely be down during the storm, I just hope the server stays dry.

SiteGeisha.ServeBBS.org

Guys our new address is now http://sitegeisha.servebbs.org!

Google Chrome

So Google Chrome is out! It is no doubt fast, hopefully it will be compatible with Firefox plugins soon. Can't wait to run adblock on it and web developer extension. So far only the Windows version is available, hopefully they will release one for Ubuntu, but until I get adblock its probably just gonna sit on my desktop gathering digital dust.

http://www.google.com/chrome

http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Google_Takes_On_IE__Firefox_With_Chrome_Web_Browser

SG is being hijacked!

No-ip.com says I violated their Terms of Service, but they did not say what or which part of their service, nor did I get a warning after using their service for so many years!!!

WTF, I signed up for a different account but they won't let me use sitegeisha.no-ip.org anymore!

damn this sucks... anyone care to donate a domain name?

Network-wide Adblock on Ubuntu + OpenDNS adblocking

Based on the article found here: http://notes.ozmonet.com/index.php?title=Network-Wide_Adblock

This method will work for both Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.
You must have lighttpd or apache installed to serve up replacement images or pages.

Install squid: sudo apt-get install squid

Configure: /etc/squid/squid.conf

http_port 3128
hierarchy_stoplist cgi-bin ?
acl QUERY urlpath_regex cgi-bin \?
cache deny QUERY
acl apache rep_header Server ^Apache
broken_vary_encoding allow apache
access_log /var/log/squid/access.log squid
log_ip_on_direct off
url_rewrite_children 5
url_rewrite_concurrency 0
refresh_pattern ^ftp: 1440 20% 10080
refresh_pattern ^gopher: 1440 0% 1440
refresh_pattern . 0 20% 4320
acl all src 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
acl our_networks src 192.168.219.0/24
cache deny all
http_access allow our_networks
http_reply_access allow all
icp_access allow all
visible_hostname SERVERNAME
coredump_dir /var/spool/squid

Install squidguard: sudo apt-get install squidguard

Download and configure adblock for use with squidguard

wget http://easylist.adblockplus.org/adblock_rick752.txt
create a sefile with this inside it:

/@@.*/d;
/^!.*/d;
/^\[.*\]$/d;
s#http://##g;
s,[.?=&/|],\\&,g;
s#*#.*#g;
s,\$.*$,, g;

Create the expression list: cat adblock_rick752.txt | sed -f sedfile > expressions

In your squidguard folder /var/lib/squidguard/db, create a folder for adblock and copy the expressions file inside it.

sudo chmod proxy.proxy -R adblock

Edit your /etc/squid/squid.conf, add this at the end

redirect_program /usr/bin/squidGuard -d -c /etc/squid/squidGuard.conf

Edit your /etc/squid/squidGuard.conf file

dbhome /var/lib/squidguard/db
logdir /var/log/squid

src my_network {
ip 192.168.219.0/24
}

dest adblock {
expressionlist adblock/expressions
redirect http://localhost/lol.jpg
}
acl {
my_network {
pass !adblock any
}
default {
pass none
redirect http://localhost/lol.jpg
}
}

Restart Squid and then configure your browsers to use the ip address of the server running squid, mine was http://192.168.219.111:3128, fire up your browser and surf ad riddled sites to test it.

Sign-up for OpenDNS, not only do they provide you with speedy DNS queries they also feature ad blocking. The good thing about OpenDNS is that you only have to configure your router and it enables all the features on every computer on your network.

Their DNS servers are down below:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

If you need help configuring your computer or router please check their site.
https://www.opendns.com/homenetwork/start/

Once you are done setting up your router login to their dashboard and go to settings \ Content Filtering. I enabled filtering for adware, parked domains and phishing.

Well that about covers it, enjoy add free surfing!

Can't watch the Olympics on Linux!!!

Went to nbcolympics.com to watch my favorite events on the olympics and it wouldn't let me, so finally had to grab my laptop and see what the requirements were.

I knew I had flash properly configured on my LinuxMint pc but it required something else!!! Microsoft Silverlight!

Damn, what a fine way to muscle your way into people's computers, "wanna watch it online gotta install our fucking Silverlight".



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Songbird Folder Watch Ghost Feature!!!

Features | Songbirdnest.com

Set Music Watch Folders
Tell Songbird to watch a folder for new music and it will automatically add new tracks to your collection

Fuck songbird!!! How do you set folder watch when it is nowhere to be found in any of your options!!! And yet it is listed as one of your fucking features!!! I'm still on a quest to find a media monkey clone in linux or at least something better than shitty amarok or that rhythm box where is always declares my mapped share drive missing and has to rescan all my stuff every freakin time.

Songbird is promising indeed, but no FOLDER WATCH!!!

EDIT: Apparently I got into an old page when looking for information about songbird, anyway google "songbird folder watch" and I think that is the first one on the list and it is also from their website. http://www.songbirdnest.com/features, you guys might want to edit that page or put something like "available on final version".

I just like to say that I love the feature that you can download songs through skreemr and that is works almost flawlessly on Linux Mint. It just looks too much like iTunes, personally I think the iTunes interface sucks, if you're looking for inspiration and features please please please look at Media Monkey!

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MySQL backup script

I just basically run this script on a cron job every night.

#! /bin/bash
BACKUPDATE=$(date +%Y%m%d).sql.gz
echo "Start backup SMFSG"
mysqldump -u username -ppassword dbname | gzip -v9 > /destfolder/smfsg$BACKUPDATE

Amarok1&2 sucks!!! MediaMonkey Rocks!!!

When I get mediamonkey running perfectly in linux, that will be one more step for me to let go of microsoft. Until then I have to keep MS to use the superior MediaMonkey!

http://www.mediamonkey.com/

Foxconn deliberately sabotaging their BIOS to destroy Linux ACPI

Foxconn deliberately sabotaging their BIOS to destroy Linux ACPI - Ubuntu Forums

Why linux has a hard time becoming mainstream, fucking companies like Foxonn sucking microdicks cock!!! I've glad to have never chosen any product from them, and I'd like all SG members to know, for those who use linux, never to buy from this fucking company. They are now on digg, slashdot and reddit. Hope they like the internet mob.

mysql data

I wonder if I could just copy all the data from /var/lib/mysql and move it to a different server... its midnight and I'm really sleepy, I will try to salvage everything from the main drive and reinstall on a different partition tomorrow.

Noo!!!!

The main drive that has the OS for the Site Geisha server has just died, tried to reiserfsck it and it just said that it could not recover anymore because it was a hardware problem.

Anyone got any suggestions how to recover stuff out of a reiserfs partition? It has our database and stuff on it :(

CIFS VFS: No response for cmd 50

Automatically mounting and unmounting Samba/Windows shares with CIFS - Lone Wolves - Web, game, and open source development

Finally a solution to this annoying shutdown problem, if Ubuntu is to become mainstream this kind of kinks in the system should be ironed out, before they start thinking of another stinking new version!!!

Linux Mint 5 Elyssa R1 (Revision 1) released

Linux Mint 5 Elyssa R1 (Revision 1) released

This article was posted on: 12/06/2008

A security issue was fixed in Linux Mint 5 Elyssa. All ISO images were rebuilt and the fix was made available in the repositories.

I've started using Linux Mint for my media center pc and I love it :) Hopefully I'll be able to replace the main server with this one.

CSV File Upload / Download

Since http://csv.el-toro.org/ is now dead, I've decided to setup a CSV file upload / download page for Site Geisha users. Registered users can upload csv's while visitors are free to download them (for now). Not sure yet how much attention this project will get.

The project can be found here http://sitegeisha.no-ip.org/csv/

It's not the PSU..

It seems my motherboard is dead, after 6 years of service it finally gave up, I tested the PSU on another PC and it worked, I tried a working psu on the server and nothing, not even a single bleep. However when I plug in the network cable the ethernet card was lit up. But that could just be the card drawing power from the cable. Anyways without a pc to hookup the sg server to it will be down for some time :( sorry guys.

Site Geisha is down, dead PSU :(

Argh the PSU on my server died last night, just as my stupid neighbor kept me awake with their fucking music. Gotta run to the store to get a new one, hope I can find one just like this, it lasted me for a long time considering it was running 24x7 for about 3 years now.

DD-WRT v24 released

We are very proud to release the final DD-WRT v24 to the public. After months of development and bug fixing we are sure this release is as stable and reliable people expect a DD-WRT major release to be. The v24 binaries are now available in the download section (click here).

DD-WRT v24 offers many new features, on of the most important is support of Atheros wlan chipsets and SOC designs. By supporting special features of the Atheros wireless designs like half- and quarter channels and extended channel support DD-WRT is now perfectly suited for long range wireless links. With this DD-WRT is now also supporting the whole Ubiquity line of wireless products using all available features the hardware offers.

Highlights of DD-WRT v24:
- Virtual SSIDs, Virtual DHCP-Servers, PPTP over WAN enhencements, Bridging + VLAN support, VDSL Support, OLSR-Routing / Freifunk, My Ad Network (powered by AnchorFree), Quaqqa instead of Bird (in X86 + Xscale default), PPPOE-Server, EOIP-Tunnel, Network configuration enhencements, UP-Downstream (QOS), New Packet Scheduler HFSC, Save & Apply, extended DDNS options, extended status information, New Languages, Sipwerk integrated Milkfish into the new release, turning every DD-WRT router into a SIP-aware firewall.


New hardware platforms:
- X86, Avila Gateworks, Cambria Gateworks, Atheros Soc (for a list, please look into the Download Section), Compex,Senao, Fonera, Ubiquiti

http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php

Useful find and replace stuff

Find files containing text:

grep -i -n 'foo' *

Find files containing text and replace them with something else:

sed -i 's/foo/bar/g' *

Ubuntu Kiosk + Opera = FTW!

Recently I've been tasked by the company that I work with to create kiosk terminals. We had some old Dell's lying around, they have a 400mhz processor, 128mb ram, 10gb hard drive. They would basically just show the company website but prevent them from going anywhere else.

Now I thought this would be a good chance to show them Ubuntu and Firefox, I'm an evangelist for those two. However what happens next is a trip into the twilight zone, I ended up having to use Opera.

It seems there are no good firefox extension that turns it into a kiosk, I tried searching on its add-on database. While there are some, most of them only works in Windoze!!! WTF!!! Mozilla wtf!!!! Open Source, ever heard of it???

Damn I was so pissed off, add the fact that the wireless usb adapters are a pain to configure in Ubuntu. I started to think that maybe I'm going on the wrong path. After googling for a miracle I finally found one post in a forum suggesting why not try opera... I've used opera before, in fact before Firefox I was a huge opera fan.

Sure enough, damn it was so easy with Opera, opera -kioskmode -nomenu -nosysmenu etc.
http://www.opera.com/support/mastering/kiosk/

Check that link for the full list of options, everything worked so sweet in opera and it was fast too. I finished all the kiosk stations in a day, and wasted 2-3 days trying to get firefox to work.

To sum it up, I installed Ubuntu using the server iso. Create a kiosk user with limited system access. Then installed xorg, xscreensaver, opera, msttcorefonts. Got the wireless adapters working using wpa_supplicant and ndiswrapper.

I created a script to start X and then when opera closes it will logout the user, this script is then called from .bashrc

kiosk.sh

#! /bin/bash
startx
clear
exit

.xinitrc

xscreensaver &
exec opera -kioskmode -noexit -nomenu -nosysmenu etc...

Removed the other terminals and left 2 running, didn't have any graphical login manager, and didn't need any window manager. They run fast and sweet on those old Dell suckers, I bet they are thankful that I saved them from the junkyard.

As for firefox, I'm so disappointed... really I am!

This post from ubuntuforums helped me install programs when the ubuntu servers were being leeched to death after the release of 8.04 it was posted by izut.

Re: How to Create Local Repository on Hard Disk

---

I'll describe a few steps I made to construct my personal repository. My current setup is:

- Ubuntu 'Warty' installed with Internet access (at work)
- Ubuntu 'Warty' installed without Internet access (at home)

Using the usual Ubuntu repositories, I updated the system and installed some packages I wanted (ruby, apache, mysql, etc). You don't need to install that on the host system, just use the apt-get's download only option. All files downloaded from repositories are in the /var/cache/apt/archives directory in the host system. I did these steps:

1. Created /opt/repo directory (could be the home directory)
2. Created the directory /opt/repo/binary (copied from Debian specs)
3. Copied all debs from my update from /var/cache/apt/archives to /opt/repo/binary
4. Executed dpkg-scanpackages like this:
# pwd
/opt/repo
# dpkg-scanpackages binary /dev/null | gzip -9c > binary/Packages.gz
5. Burned a CD with its contents

For use that in my standalone host, I did this:
# apt-cdrom add
...

I think it's all.

Cya.

SG is down!

Server went kaputz! Will be back soon.

Microsoft Predicted to Back Away from Vista - GigaOM

Just recently bought a tablet pc and I just want to slam it on the wall and rip it into pieces, the cause of my woes... Vista! It's slow as fuck... copying a single 700mb took forever, my media server (500mhz pentium II running ubuntu beat it!) It also drained the battery by doing system restore every couple of fucking minute! Had to turn it off as it was trashing the hard drive.

HP's wireless assistant is also crap, in fact HP installed so much crap on it, its annoying. My wife hated it, each time she'd restart or resume from sleep the damn thing can't find the wireless!!! The tablet I'm talking about by the way is the HP Pavilion TX1410US.

http://www.amazon.com/Pavilion-TX1410US-Laptop-Processor-Premium/dp/B0010S2P9A


This thing also runs hot, I should have probably sticked with my instinct and bought a Core2Duo laptop. In fact I'm gonna return the damn thing and get me a Core2Duo, AMD has been doing a lot of sucking lately. And its not light either, the touchscreen is annoying, it has some sort of matte that makes the screen wobble when you move from side to side.

The touchscreen is not so great, I have a wacom tablet and this thing is no wacom. I think I'll stick to my wacom for my graphic needs.

Vista = Crap piece of shit
HP TX1410US = 3 of 10 ( too fucking hot, literally will burn your lap)

Firefox 3 Beta 5

Firefox web browser | International versions: Get Firefox in your language

Firefox 3 Beta 5, is now out, but you should probably wait before updating to the newest release. Cause this one breaks a lot of plugins and not even the lifehacker hack can enable them. Adblock appears on the toolbar but is completely worthless, it DOES NOT work!!!

Fix it!!!!Fix it!!!! Fix it!!!! Fix it!!!! Fix it!!!! Fix it!!!! NOW!!!

Dumb thief gets caught by online community

1991 skyline gt-r-stolen! calgary, ab - cash reward*pics of criminals inside* - Beyond.ca - Car Forums

-New member regretfully posts that his car has been stolen by someone with a fake ID that took a permanent test drive. Describes vehicle and thief.
-Thief encounters another forum member at Chinook mall, member recognizes stolen vehicle as described in this post. Snaps pictures, posts on beyond. Even in a city of 1 million people, thief is spotted within hours due to internet exposure
-Thief is found on facebook using said pictures, recognized by multiple members
-Full name, address, and workplace is found via facebook
-Multiple forum members drive to known address at 2:30am, car is parked outside. Dude peeks out the window, sees posse, gets scared.
-Car disappears at some point.
-Another member drives by later, finds car. Boxes car in, calls cops, calls rightful owner
-Hilarity ensues
-Cops show up 2 hours later, pictures and youtube video posted of stolen car, and Dr. Claw the fail car thief getting arrested
-Car is now safe at home, back up for sale, with a new test drive policy. Bonus: Thief leaves $22 in change, and a shitty wanksta hat.

Link is passed around to virtually every forum worldwide within hours, checking in to show community support. Appears on front page of digg.com.



Dumb thief LOL serves you right motherfucker!

Creative sucks!!!

Message to Daniel_K - Sound Blaster - Creative Labs

Daniel_K: We are aware that you have been assisting owners of our Creative sound cards for some time now, by providing unofficial driver packages for Vista that deliver more of the original functionality that was found in the equivalent XP packages for those sound cards. In principle we don't have a problem with you helping users in this way, so long as they understand that any driver packages you supply are not supported by Creative. Where we do have a problem is when technology and IP owned by Creative or other companies that Creative has licensed from, are made to run on other products for which they are not intended. We took action to remove your thread because, like you, Creative and its technology partners think it is only fair to be compensated for goods and services. The difference in this case is that we own the rights to the materials that you are distributing. By enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended, you are in effect, stealing our goods. When you solicit donations for providing packages like this, you are profiting from something that you do not own. If we choose to develop and provide host-based processing features with certain sound cards and not others, that is a business decision that only we have the right to make. Although you say you have discontinued your practice of distributing unauthorized software packages for Creative sound cards we have seen evidence of them elsewhere along with donation requests from you. We also note in a recent post of yours on these forums, that you appear to be contemplating the release of further packages. To be clear, we are asking you to respect our legal rights in this matter and cease all further unauthorized distribution of our technology and IP. In addition we request that you observe our forum rules and respect our right to enforce those rules. If you are in any doubt as to what we would consider unacceptable then please request clarification through one of our forum moderators before posting. Phil O'Shaughnessy VP Corporate Communications Creative Labs Inc. Forum Moderator Creative Labs

Used to liked Creative, but I guess now I would be staying away from them and actually I would refrain from ever recommending their products ever again, to anyone!!! What's sad about this is that them admitting that they knew the devices would have worked on vista but decided not to make it work, but instead sell something that would make it work. But here is this guy who made it work for free, some are saying he shouldn't take donations, well fuck them, everyone has to eat!

Also some of the forum members suggested he get hired, but I bet creative already got the programmers who can make those drivers but were told not to make them as it would drive their customers to buy newer products, Creative can suck dick, never will buy their products again.

ImageHost Grabber

This nice and nifty firefox extension is perfect for leeching those image hosting sites.

ImageHost Grabber - ImageHost Grabber

What is ImageHost Grabber?
ImageHost Grabber is a firefox extension that will download all images on a page that are hosted on an image host. You find this often in web forums where people will use a free image host to post a gallery of pictures. This extension will allow you to download all the images on the current page.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Update on GD vs ImageMagick

I decided it wasn't fair for me to compare gd and imagemagick when I was calling imagemagick through exec( "convert image.jpg -thumbnail 100x TN_image.jpg" ) so I decided to install the extension for php called imagick.

This had to be installed to PECL, it didn't work on my ubuntu 7.10 by just doing apt-get install php5-imagick.

Nice examples of how to use imagick on Mikko's blog. I couldn't follow his examples though as the version that was installed through PECL didn't have some of the functions he used. Would have been nice to put shadows on my thumbnails though.

Anyways I made the script that creates thumbnails through imagick and compared it to the script in my gallery that uses GD. It seems GD was ahead by just a bit this time, although the quality of the imagick thumbnails were far superior, probably because I had set the GD functions to use less resolution.


GD TEST


From this example the images were really huge (3000x4500 pixels 1.5-2mb), the thumbnails rendered by GD seems pixelated compared to what imagick produced.

IMAGICK TEST


Imagick created 12 thumbnails with very nice quality but was 2 seconds slower than GD.

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GD vs ImageMagick

Well I've seen some code in php.net about creating thumbnails fast, basically some guy wrote an alternative to imagecopyresampled and called it fastimagecopyresampled. I decided to see how fast it really is, so to compare I created a script that would create thumbnails from a bunch of images using ImageMagick.

And here are the results:

Using ImageMagick to generate 6 thumbnails from a gallery.



Now using GD to generate the same thumbnails, I deleted the old ones.



It is clear who the winner is, definitely GD.



References:
http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.imagecopyresampled.php
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.imagick-thumbnailimage.php
http://valokuva.org/?paged=2

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