currently I’m checking out ruby on rails. I’m quite impressed how fast simple applications which need databases can be realized.

for a quick start I recommend the following web sites:

• Rolling with ruby on rails on ONLamp.com
• Ruby on rails wiki

if you need the iso-8859-1 character set (latin-1, west european), the solution can be found in Simon’s Blog.

Just uninstall libdbus-1-2.

Please find an explanation here: http://mindwarp.net/?p=28

tested with Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (The Dapper Drake) and Linux Live 5.5.0 scripts.
I was looking for a possibility to create my own live cd with the newest ubuntu version. after trying out some tools e.g. Ubuntu Customization Kit I finally found the linux-live scripts. with these scripts it is possible to create a live cd from a running linux system. I prefer this approach where you are able to configure a running system and don’t need to add code to several scripts as in uck. but it took quite some time to get the linux-live scripts working. for ubuntu are some changes necessary. this how-to should work at least up to dapper drake” Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (The Dapper Drake). for Ubuntu 6.10 LTS (The Edgy Eft) it won’t work, I guess. they radically changed the boot process there. But now let’s have a look at this small how-to:

1. Download the scripts and extract them to some place of your choice.
2. Download the kernel source of your running distro, we need a new kernel. if you don’t know how, follow these instructions: http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Kernel?highlight=%28kompilieren%29%7C%28kernel%29 (atm german only but I’m looking for a good english one)
3. Compile & install the kernel with a configuration according to the settings in the requirements file located in linux-live-5.0.0/DOC/requirements.txt of the linux-live scripts. I would recommend to choose a configuration from an existing live cd like grml. Link to kernel 2.6.15 config: http://www.grml.org/kernel/ (in my case with this configuration it worked right away)
4. Reboot into the new kernel
5. Make sure you have chroot installed
6. Now you need to do some changes in configuration files. in the file linux-live-5.0.0/initrd/liblinuxlive change the lines “UNION=union” and “MEMORY=memory” to “UNION=/union” and “MEMORY=/memory”.
7. modify linux-live-5.0.0/config according to the instructions from the linux-live-5.5.0/DOC/requirements.txt. set “COMPRESS=0″ (ubuntu doesn’t seem to support compressed kernel modules) and “INITRDIMG=initrd.img-`(uname -r)`”. maybe you need to increase the size of the ram disk size. you need to set the size in here and also linux-live-5.0.0/cd-root/isolinux.cfg.

this should be it. now cross your fingers and start the scripts.

I managed to get working the TVAnts peer-to-peer application with wine.

just download TVAnts from http://www.tvants.com after you installed wine (http://www.winehq.com). if you haven't installed a standard media player (e.g. windows media player 6.4 with additional codecs) you have to use a linux media player. use regedit and import this regedit file. if you wish to use another player than mplayer just edit the line @="\"/usr/bin/mplayer\" \"-zoom\" \"%L\"" in the file.

Finally they made it!

http://forum.sopcast.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1721

There should be a new linux version available soon: http://forum.sopcast.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1710

you may have noticed that sopcast have improved their program the last months continously. unfortunately at the moment it seems that they won't continue the linux version of sopcast. the sp-sc applications before version 0.9.5 won't work anymore.

luckily sopcast 0.9.5 works at least with wine 0.9.14. the "video display" (the embedded windows media player) I didn't get to work but sopcast offers the option to view the stream on a local port.

so you just have to run sopcast 0.9.5 with wine, chose the channel you prefer and open in the player you prefer the address http://localhost:8902 (e.g. mplayer http://localhost:8902).

the first time I followed the instructions on this page (french) but using sopcast without GUI wasn't satisfying. so I tried to find a GUI for linux. I found one on magiclinux.org. with a few modifications in the source I finally got it working.

extract the file sopgui-0.3-custom.tar.bz2 to a directory of your choice, run the shell script sopcast & enjoy!

remarks:

• the "refresh" button doesn't work. you have to start sopcast alway by running the shell script. maybe when I have time I'll have a look at it.
• when it doesn't work follow the instructions on the mentioned page at the top of this post until step five then copy the files sopgui, sopcast and getchannel to the directory where you extracted the debian package and/or compile sopgui again.
• this one should work for debian as well

after installing the common codecs with this howto, playing WMV files will still not work. you have to install additional codecs.

download the essential codecs package from mplayerhq and extract its content to the directory /usr/lib/win32. now you should be able to play WMV9 files.

I had problems to get the microphone working on my computer. I did quite a long time intensive research on the internet but with no result. after playing around with my settings I finally found the solution. unfortunately ubuntu or alsa seems to enable only 2 channels (for stereo output) of the sound card but there are 6!! and this is how to enable all channels:

install the alsa utilities [cmd: sudo apt-get install alsa-utils]

start the alsamixer [cmd: alsamixer]

increase item "Channel" from 2ch to 6ch

now you should be able to use your microphone. remark: for adjusting the volume use the "Line" slider, the "Mic" slider won't work!