FusionCast

Long time no post

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:38:47 PST

Hello, I'm still alive, but busy in High School, finishing my senior year. I hope that I will have time in my college years to continue this, as compiz moves in new directions.

Indeed, as Compiz Fusion seems to be coming to an end, I may have to rename the cast. At the moment I do not have time enough to make more episodes, and compiz fusion hasn't developed much anyway.

I am pretty sure that this summer I will be able to start 'er up again, maybe with a new name, and start fresh with all new bleeding edge compiz++! :)

Another reason for me posting this is an important message: DO NOT INSTALL VIA GIT ANYMORE. As Kristian mentioned, the new work on Compiz has moved to git, and confused up scripts and how-tos. Just use what Ubuntu ships with; it's up-to-date enough to have all the plugins I've reviewed.

I don't know how many people still check this blog, but I hope to start something again sometime in the near future. :) Thanks for staying subscribed all this time!

--gavin

My new Xwinwrap gui Gwinwrap

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:08:20 PDT

I'm pleased to announce the first public version of my pygtk app Gwinwrap. It's still very new, and most likely buggy, but if you feel like trying it the code is at Google Code.

Basically, it finds all your xscreensavers and lists them, with a preview. You can choose to start the xwinwrap screen with opacity, and choose whether or not to use a nice command before for better cpu management. Xscreensaver Arguments are also accepted in the input box.

Hope you like it!

FusionCast VI -- New Plugin: Stackswitch

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:41:36 PDT

Well, here we are already with another episode. Keep in mind that I plan on making shorter, more specific episodes now for easier searching on Youtube, etc. Because of this, the episode numbers are less important and more emphasis is on the plugin/features outlined.

Watch the original video here for annotations, and/or if you're coming from the planet.

Can you Digg it? >> Thanks everyone for putting this on the front page! And welcome, diggers!

This episode, we show you an all-new plugin: Stackswitch! Added by Onestone to gitweb, this plugin is a neat hybrid of the scale and shift window switchers. Take a look at the video for details!

Thanks a whole lot to Kate Linford for personally offering her track, "Hip Hop Bond" to use on this cast. I think you'll find it quite outstanding! A link to the track may be made available later.

Links:
Stackswitch on Gitweb
Original Announcement (onestone's blog)

Please email me at fusioncast at gmail dot com!
I am on IRC occasionally under the nick of gavintlgold on irc.freenode.net #compiz-fusion.
Also, comment by clicking on the link below.

Tip: did you know that you can sort my posts by the label "episodes" to only see my episodes and cut out the announcements and stuff?

FusionCast Episode V - Ghost + Dodge!

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:47:52 PDT

NOTE: I would seriously recommend watching this from the Youtube page. You'll get the annotations that way and they'll clarify a few things. I'm putting the video here anyway for lazy people:

Here's a new episode of FusionCast! This time, we run through a couple of things you can do with the similar plugins Ghost and Dodge (not to be confused with the dodge animation!). These plugins are available only with the developmental version of Compiz Fusion (GIT).

Ghost: This plugin (in its default settings) makes all normal windows set to "Always on Top" transparent and inputless. In other words, you can click underneath the window but still see it. This can be useful for typing in commands, but also (I imagine) for image editing without having to import a photo into the image editor (see the video's example).

I changed the settings to this because I found it worked better (Allowing windows that aren't "normal" to ghost too):

Dodge: This plugin also lets you have windows on top without worrying about using their input. Instead of making the window transparent, it slides it out of the way when your cursor would be over it. Other ways of dodging are making the window go all the way off the screen and physically move (where it will remain until it is moved again). The wobbly effect really makes this plugin great. My custom configuration follows:

Oh, for those who thought this was pointless because the plugins are already pretty old, I am active now and you'll get a more useful, up to date video soon. This video is after all geared towards those who don't have GIT compiz I suppose. :) Horray for summer!

Links:
Ghost on gitweb
Dodge on gitweb

Please email me at fusioncast at gmail dot com!
I am on IRC occasionally (at irc.freenode.net #compiz-fusion) under the nick of gavintlgold.
Also, comment by clicking on the link below.

FusionCast on Twitter!

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:13:48 PDT

I just joined Twitter as FusionCast. If anyone is interested feel free to add me :) Videos coming very soon... I've updated my compiz and am now figuring out which new plugin to feature! (see the twitter for more updates!)

Youtube Annotations + More Vids to Come!

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:19:26 PDT

A very interesting feature that may be extremely useful for me is the new Youtube Annotations feature. Take a look at the page of my latest fusioncast for an example. It allows me to put notes in the middle of the cast. I think it'll be very useful in the future. What do you think?

Speaking of the future, I am now out of school (summer!) That means that I'll have considerably more time to work on video casts. Expect quite a few coming up! And tell me if they should have annotations too. Thanks!

Compiz Fusion Sphere is here! Yay!

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:27:33 PDT

All hail Desktop Sphere!

Finally, onestone has managed to code the desktop sphere many people were waiting for! He wrote about it on his blog. It's quite a neat plugin, and also merges the cubecaps plugin with the cube addon plugin, making for less plugins to worry about (the cubecaps plugin was sort of minor in the configurations, anyway).

Only available in git of course, but great to try out for those of us who have access to that ;)

And digg it too so others know: http://digg.com/linux_unix/Compiz_Fusion_Truly_Spherical_Desktop_View_Arrives

Blog post: http://dev.compiz-fusion.org/~onestone/blog/?p=10

Edit: sorry about messing up the planet, it's an annoying bug :(

Edit 2: To clarify, the sphere is available in the "Cubeaddon" plugin.

A call for feedback :)

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:40:11 PDT

NOTE: Comments have been closed... please go to the post in the forums instead so we have one thread instead of two! Thanks a lot! :)

Hey, according to the poll on the top right of this blog, a LOT of you liked this recent episode! Thanks a lot for letting me know your opinions (and if you didn't like it feel free to voice that view as well).

I was reviewing the episode just now, (since I made it around midnight and want to make sure I didn't make any horrible slipups, and that kind of thing happens around then), and I was thinking maybe I should post the music info near the beginning of the video as in a music video (and some austrian ads I've seen).

That got me into thinking that I don't nearly get as much feedback as I should. I would really like to know how you think I could make this better. Seems you guys liked the animation at the beginning and the more-smooth syncing with the beat at the beginning.

However, in my current style, I don't really have too much to videoblog about between big visual updates like the cylinder. I just make a video demonstrating the latest and greatest coming out of the great minds of our Compiz Fusion coders. I can't make a videocast about every bugfix, of course.

But I get the feeling that people don't like these long gaps... a videocast should be more regular, it seems. Should I post solutions to common problems? Configuration tutorials? Perhaps other recent developments in the world of Linux awesomeness? Please... let me know via the forum post.

(speaking of which, I hadn't realized that you needed a google account to post a comment with my settings, and have since changed that... all are now welcome as long as they get past the CAPTCHA!)

Fusioncast Episode IV

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:16:34 PDT

(if you are seeing this from the planet, without the youtube video, visit the actual blog post to see this episode)

NOTE: I'm experimenting with the new "annotations" feature on Youtube. You'll have to go to the video's page to see them though. Let me know what you think!

Yes, you read that right! It's another episode of Fusioncast, this time reviewing:

Cube cylinder
Mag plugin
Showmouse
The new expo curve
Updates to atlantis
An excerpt about the wii head tracking plugin

Notes:

You will have to compile compiz fusion from source to get the cylinder and other new plugins. Some plugins may already be available in the Hardy beta, however.

I don't have a Wii controller, so I took a segment from Smspillaz's video (see below). Learn more at his blog.

Since everyone always asks about my theme, I'll just let you all know right now: This time, it's the Ubuntu Hardy "Human-Murrine" with customized colors (I like that they finally included this option for the Human theme!). The wallpaper is linked below. Using the "Glossy" metacity theme. Running Hardy Heron beta.

I'm also (as usual) using Kiba-Dock, SVN version. It's extremely alpha software, and quite buggy since it's not a release (I'm not complaining), but I like to run it for fun (and because it looks so cool).

I used Blender to make the little 3d compiz-cube, and I will upload the source files soon. Patience, guys. I intend to upload all the source videos and files as well for your tinkering benefit. It's coming.

EDIT: Sorry for forgetting to mention the video editor! I use kdenlive (as in the other fusioncasts). It's a little improved in the Hardy repos, but still extremely buggy. I'm waiting for all those MLT bugs to get fixed, guys!!

Please comment if I've forgotten to mention something. I'll set it aright.

Links:

Wallpaper
Dock on the bottom of the screen
Link to the website of the amazing cute movie with the rabbit (it's an open source movie!)
The original Wii head tracking video by Johnny Lee
Wii head tracking with compiz fusion by Smspillaz
Where the cool music came from

Kdenlive

Original video file + all source files coming soon!

Please email me at fusioncast at gmail dot com!
I am on IRC occasionally under the nick of gavintlgold.
Also, comment by clicking on the link below.

Community Video: Fun with WiiMote and Compiz Fusion

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 19:36:17 PST

Since I won't have time to make videos over this holiday, I've decided to look over videos I enjoy or find interesting and post them here as "Community Videos." Of course, they will all remain about Compiz Fusion and related topics!

This was made by our very own SmSpillaz, whom you should know by now:

This video demonstrates how you can use a WiiMote along with Compiz Fusion to do some pretty cool stuff.

Note that it is done all with the inbuilt accelerometer, and I'm using the 'Hack' WiiMote driver via uinput. There is an actual driver being developed by the freedesktop guys as we speak (And it works with MPX too :))

I didn't use the IR pointer because it's a pain to use with plugins that warp the pointer (Such as cube) and puts your pointer out of sync.

More info at smspillaz.wordpress.com

My observations: It looks like an interesting way of manipulating Compiz Fusion (and a desktop in general) but certainly not something that would be useful or have a purpose other than impressing people with your 1337 h4x0r skillz :P. Still, good work Sam!

Please note that I did not make this video, or any others in the future labeled "Community Video." Refer to the Youtube page to give the author feedback.

Video: Practical Uses of Desktop Effects

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:57:25 PST

EDIT: The link is fixed now! Also added the name of the song. Please recast your ratings on youtube :D Thanks!

I hope you enjoy this silly video parodying Compiz Fusion's effects. :) This is all I will do for the next few weeks, since I will be busy on vacation :D

High Quality MPEG file here

Thanks for answering the poll by the way.

Episode III

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 09:26:33 PST

Original MPEG added.

As a special treat, I present episode III of FusionCast. It's a no-talking episode, but it features Freescale, Shelf, and Freewins, and a few less known features of these three new(ish) plugins.

Hope you enjoy, and don't mind if the quality is a little below my usual standard--I made this in a few hours.

All three plugins are available through the GIT repository.

Notes
=======

Freescale is a simple hack by SmSpillaz that changes Freewins so that it scales windows instead of rotating them. It has a few bugs, and is a hack, so the code is less polished.

Shelf, on the other hand, is based on the miniwin plugin from long ago. The name was suggested by me in the forums, when I had the same sort of idea. Since it's coded by KristianLy (he made many plugins and is a member of the team), and has been made from scratch, it will most likely have less bugs and be under longer development. Also, the point of Shelf is more useful than Freescale is, since Freescale is what its name says--free-scaling. It has about as much use as Freewins. Shelf, however, should be useful as a sort of replacement to minimization.

The bugs at the end are just a little example of silly things you can do. If you make all your windows at the same 3d angle as the desktop, it can look sort of like you are working on a 3d table. Of course, you can't use your windows while using Freewins, but.... it looks cool. :D

Original MPEG here.

Please email me at fusioncast at gmail dot com!
I am on IRC frequently under the nick of gavintlgold.
Also, comment by clicking on the link below.

Clarification about shelf

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:39:01 PST

Some folks were confused about the use of shelf, so I decided to post my idea right here on the blog. Kristian (the developer working on it) doesn't want to do the group integration, because he doesn't feel that it's good to have a dependency on it. But other than that he's going to base it on the following forum post (and how miniwin was in its old stages):

Another Plugin Idea: Shelf Plugin

Now, I wish i could code this, but I don't know anything about it. But here's my idea.

We have a new plugin called "Shelf". It requires the group/tab plugin to work (and integrates well with it). The basic idea: When you initiate the event, the plugin scales down to a small size that sits on your desktop (with a nice reflection). Here's a mockup: Ok, now we have a mockup of a mouseover (of course it would look slicker, i just drew this with the pencil tool):

Here's another idea: A different mode called "card" mode that would look like this (and enable rotation, etc): [this was added before freewins was invented, right now we might be able to just have freewins do this]

For more, and the discussion, click here.

Note to self...

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:39:37 PST

NEVER USE NTSC MODE IN KDENLIVE.

The audio won't work.

That is all.

By the way, I'm exporting a nice quick video now. Look forward to it very soon!

Resolution!

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:19:24 PST

So, finally we find out what happened to the webspace. Our friendly host fsckr found a notice from 1and1 saying that there was pornography on his page, and that they deleted it. He then asked them to remake it, since he had no knowledge of it.

Well, it was my forum's spam gremlins that did it. So now we know what was up.

In this very very late update, I may as well add that I have ubuntu and compiz fusion git back, and have all those mouthwateringly cool new plugins installed.

So..... I think I'll see if I can make a silent (Since audio takes a lot of work) new fusioncast vid featuring those (think Shelf, freewins, freescale, atlantis2, snowball... all those good things).

Sorry for being the typical bad vidcaster and leaving you all alone without an update.

Luckily SmSpillaz has done nothing of the sort, and remains faithful with his Community News. Read that for now.

Bye Bye Webspace?

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:33:51 PDT

I am not sure what happened to fsckr's hosting space, but it seems to have disappeared--so the site looks a bit bad without its background image, and anything I had hosted like the mpegs are not available. Youtube is still up of course.

Bear with me, my install is currently broken for Compiz Fusion to run so I can't make any videos, when I get a Gutsy CD I'll fix that.

fsckr, if you see this please email me: fusioncast@gmail.com ... thanks. :/

Don't worry though, I'm still here and interested in doing fusioncast. I need to fix my install, get up to date, and do lots of schoolwork, etc.

Sorry that nothing has been coming out recently :)

(also the forums are gone since that was on fsckr.net too :P)

How To Install Kiba-Dock SVN

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:09:13 PDT

So, I've been very busy at school, but since people have asked, here is a short howto for Kiba-Dock. I hear the AWN instructions are easier to find...

First, install Subversion to download the source code:

sudo apt-get install subversion

Then visit this page, and install the dependencies (using Synaptic Package Manager, and including the names with -dev).

run:

svn co https://kibadock.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/kibadock/trunk/ kiba

and then:

ls

and then take a look at the list. There should be about five blue items. You'll want to go into each of these with the cd command:

cd akamaru

for example. After you cd into it, run:

./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

and then when those commands are done, run:

cd ../insert_next_directory_name_here

and do the three commands again.

Once all of that is finished, you should be able to launch kiba-dock from your menu. Good luck!

New Feed Service

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 13:18:51 PDT

I've just switched to FeedBurner, and you can subscribe to the video with a "watch now" link on your feed. So I would suggest unsubscribing if you have a subscription now, and subscribing to the feed link on the sidebar.

[iTunes still doesn't work, but no one uses iTunes anyway.... right?] ;)

FusionCast Flash Episode I

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:31:11 PDT

This episode gives a quick picture of the latest development versions of Kiba Dock and Avant Window Navigator, the two most popular Linux docks which require Compiz Fusion or Beryl to run.

Links:
Avant Window Navigator
Kiba Dock

There are basic installation instructions on the two websites. However, I am going to make a howto right here for both eventually, probably on Sunday, and post that here. I hope you enjoy this episode!

Find the original MPEG file here.

Please email me at fusioncast at gmail dot com!
I am on IRC frequently under the nick of gavintlgold.
Also, comment by clicking on the link below.

Check out the FusionCast Forums

Cancel that.... Instead, a plea for help!

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:27:12 PDT

I have decided not to do the dock special, since the docks are under too much development currently. There would end up being bickering over features I didn't know about.

Instead, we thought a troubleshooting episode would be good, with common problems and places to get help with them.

Please discuss this here: http://www.fusioncastforums.fsckr.net/viewtopic.php?p=30

I need ideas on which errors and problems to feature. Thanks! The less I have to spend working on putting together the episode, the faster I can get this out. What with school, I've been very busy with homework and the like. I even have SAT class on Saturdays now, adding to my homework as well as taking away another day of the week.

So if you guys (I know you're out there, I have a hit counter) can give me ideas, we can get this thing rolling again. You helped me with the theme music, now let's get some content!

Video delayed due to school, etc.

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:37:11 PDT

I can't release the video about kiba-dock and a-w-n as soon as I expected since I just started school again and also there were a few things I discovered about a-w-n that require re-voiceovering, since what I said is now inaccurate.

Better late than inaccurate, I suppose! :D Expect something on Sunday or Monday, ok?

PS: I added a hit counter to the site, and that's made me realize how many visitors I have here. For instance, today I have had 51 unique visitors so far (though you who are reading this may make it higher ;) ) I get on average 68 unique visitors and 113 visits per day.

I consider that to be quite high, considering there's almost nothing on this site right now. I believe the majority of visitors come across this after googling something, and I hope to be more useful soon, with more videos! And all new visitors please see the archives, there are two videos posted so far.

Enjoy!

Infobyte: Emerald Themes and Skydomes

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:12:30 PDT

If you want some neat Emerald themes and Compiz Fusion Skydomes, try http://compiz-themes.org . They have lots of different things on there.

I Found Music!

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 17:58:43 PDT

I found some awesome free music to use as background music! Thanks to Puthali in an email, I have discovered this webpage: http://www.blackstratblues.com/ with an entire free album. Please donate money (via Paypal) to this guy. He's letting people have his music for free, but wants new equipment.

Check out the music, and expect it to be in the next episode!

Background or Theme Music Wanted!

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:41:51 PDT

If anyone has a piece or knows of a piece of great upbeat-sounding Creative Commons music that would sound good as the background or theme track to FusionCast, PLEASE write a comment or an email (fusioncast AT gmail DOT com) to me. I need some free (as in beer and freedom) music for FusionCast.

Alternatively, if you are an aspiring band or artist who thinks one of their tracks is worthy, let me help with your publicity by allowing me to use it as my theme! I'll mention that it's done by your band, and give a link if you have a website.

I'm still picky though, so make sure it really sounds good and is appropriate. The fewer vocals, the better, since it won't interrupt my talking so much if I play it during a speech. An instrumental would be ideal.

Let me know. Thanks!

Infobyte: How I record my desktop

fusioncast@gmail.com (gavintlgold) — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:22:54 PDT

I installed xvidcap for ubuntu, and then used the terminal version with the following command:

xvidcap --file filename.mpeg --fps 15 --cap_geometry 1680x1050+0+0 --rescale 25 --time 200.0 --start_no 0 --continue yes --gui no --auto

That will capture 200 seconds of video at fullscreen 1680x1050 resolution, but scaled down 25 percent, with 15 frames per second.

Hope this helps prospective videocasters!